Dark Words
by once bitten
Summary: It starts out with a HUGE info-dump--sorry--but picks up pretty quick. A COMPLETE story revisiting favorite Carpathians of mine and introducing Asta and Nolan.
1. Chapter 1

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1

"Your Highness, Asta Gregorski did not perish with her parents."

The two men who'd been quietly talking on Prince Mikhail's front porch enjoying the late summer evening, turned and stared at the male walking slowly up the steps to join them. Nolan Sejka pushed back his thick, jet black hair and silently waited for them to digest the news he'd brought.

All three were similar in looks, they had broad chests, were tall and fit with long dark hair. There, though, the similarities ended. Although the other two were undeniably handsome men, Nolan was the epitome of male beauty. Through all the ages he'd lived, never had there been a time he wasn't admired for the perfection of his appearance. His strong masculine features were offset by his flawlessly arched eyebrows, and thin, well-defined lips. His strong jaw was the only thing that saved him from being 'pretty'. That and his expression. Always serious, almost cruel. His eyes, though, were what most people remembered. A blue, so light and intense, so very beautiful, most didn't notice that it was only the color that was passionate, nothing of the man could be seen or felt, no matter how long or deeply you looked.

"Where is she?" Prince Mikhail demanded. _'Raven, come out here, this could be very good news.'_

Nolan turned to face his prince, "She was in the southwest of the United States," he told him. "She's lived there for the last few years. I don't know where she is now."

Raven stepped through the front door. She smiled a greeting to the two men and looked to her lifemate. Knowing Mikhail was happy about something made her own blue eyes sparkle. "What is your good news, my prince?" she teased him as she took his hand.

"A long lost Carpathian has been discovered," he told her. Mikhail looked to Nolan, "She is safe?" he asked him.

"Yes," Nolan replied. _'I think so. She hasn't told me she's not.' _he more accurately finished the thought.

"Please, tell me about her," Raven requested of Nolan. "What is her name?"

"Asta Gregorski." he told her. "She is a contemporary of Lucien and Gabriel. She and her parents left here not long after so many of our people were massacred by the Turks. We thought they had been attacked and killed in Tibet by vampires over 500 years ago."

"Was she captured by the vampire, Nolan?" The prince's concern and anger were both evident in his tone.

"No," Nolan leaned against the railing on the porch. "She wasn't with them when it happened. Asta was away exploring caves in an area called Mustang. Her father called to Gregori when they were attacked," Nolan nodded toward the Carpathian on his left. "but her parents didn't let her know they were in danger. Asta only realized something was wrong when they didn't answer her call. She went back to their home but…" he lifted an elegant shoulder, "by then it was over."

"I answered Reginald's call," the somber Gregori said. "when I got there the house was burned to the ground. The only remains I found belonged to their human servants. For a short time, I thought there was a possibility they had survived. I searched meticulously for all three, but I found no trace of them."

"Asta arrived there before you, Gregori," Nolan said. "She was the one who burned the house. She made sure the deaths of her parents and the humans looked as though they had been caused by a fire that got out of control." He looked at the healer, "She left no trace that vampires had been in the area."

"That is true," said Gregori, "it was only because Reginald told me they were being attacked that I searched for and so found signs of vampires there. If I had just chanced upon the place I would have never noticed anything amiss."

"Reginald died protecting Tanya and the humans who served them. He killed one of the undead before he died. After his death, Tanya had no choice but to meet the dawn to save herself from being captured by the remaining one." Nolan sat on the bench next to him looked up at the intent faces patiently waiting for him to go on. He sighed, and continued the story.

"Asta went to ground for many years. When she decided to live again she sailed across the ocean and explored the New World. She travels extensively, but has been in the United States more than any other place. She spends her time teaching humans." _'Among other things,' _Nolan thought to himself. He looked at the two men knowing they would soon be asking him more difficult questions. He wondered to himself how this night would end. Before he approached the Prince he'd very carefully thought through the only two possible outcomes. Whatever ultimately happened, he knew this night would be both a beginning and an end for him.

"Tanya was a relative of the Trigvise's." said Mikhail. "Traian needs to know we have found a long lost cousin of his." He smiled at his lifemate, knowing what he was about to say would make her happy. "I believe he and Asta played together as children."

"Oh, Mikhail," Raven beamed, "what wonderful news for him to learn while he and Joie are here waiting for the birth of their child."

But Nolan knew they hadn't really found Asta, they only knew she was out there, somewhere. Alone and unprotected. And that went against every male Carpathian instinct he'd been born with. She was going to have to be found. Even though she'd managed this long on her own, cut off from all she'd known, enduring hostile environments and people, even flourishing in her chosen pursuits, it was time for her to come home. The danger that surrounded her, that she had brought on herself, could easily end in her death.

She needed the shelter and safety that only came when surrounded by familiar places and loving family. Nolan drew a deep mental breath, there was no escaping that both Mikhail and Gregori were going to be displeased when they learned the rest of her story. Or that he was going to have to be the one to tell them.

Mikhail must have told more than just Traian and Joie about Asta. Nolan sensed two couples heading toward them to find out first hand about the missing Gregorski female. One of the females coming to the prince's home was pregnant, she had been Carpathian for less than five years.

Everyone believed it was a miracle that some Carpathians had been able to find lifemates among the human population in the past few years. They believed there was now 'hope' for the future. Nolan alone seemed to think that finding lifemates was as effective at staving off Carpathian extinction, as throwing rocks into the ocean would be at stopping the tides.

For all of his own 1,100 years of life Nolan watched his race dwindle. Now there were so very few left. Almost all males had become hunters. The few females left to them were unable to bear and raise their children in safety. No matter what precautions the Carpathians took, no matter how skilled their hunters, the undead continued to destroy everything they attempted to rebuild. And now, human women were being drawn into the death throes of their race, they were even bringing infants into his doomed society.

The Carpathian race needed their children to survive for it to continue. They especially needed females to be born, there had been only four born in last 500 years who were still living. Without a female to bond with more males than ever before were choosing to become the undead. He understood Mikhail's desire to find a way to save them all, but Nolan believed that the danger and death the women and children faced in his world were too high a price for them to pay for the continuation of his species.

Although, he couldn't feel what the bonded males felt he listened to their words. They said they loved their small families. They talked of protecting them from any and all threats. Nolan didn't believe that love was best expressed by exposing innocents to constant peril. And protection wasn't possible when they were being attacked on so many fronts. The very earth that gave them life was being poisoned against them and made the continuation of their species next to impossible. Humans hunted them, vampires hunted them, wizards and jaguar men and even some of their descendants worked toward their annihilation.

And that was only what they had to fight externally. The Carpathian males who couldn't find their lifemates were turning. So many had chosen to give up their souls, there wasn't a single Carpathian family that hadn't lost someone. The males who hadn't turned were forced to hunt the traitors down and destroy them. If the hunter actually survived the fight with the former friend or relative and managed to kill him, the darkness inside him grew, drawing the hunter ever closer to the darkness himself.

The only color in an unmated male's world was shades of gray, the only emotion, the thrill of power that coursed through him when he fought, fed or took a life. That feeling of power was the lure that led so many of his brethren to choose to become undead. The hunger for blood the closest thing to an emotion they had. Feeling the beast inside rise up during a fight or when feeding the only time they lived in the moment. Knowing if they fed until they drank the life of their victim into them, the intensity would be even more was pure enticement. Taking a life that way would be so very easy when caught up in the frenzy of their bloodlust. And for some, the transient adrenaline rush of passion that came with the kill was worth the cost of their honor. The darkness a part of their soul from birth spread until they were no longer Carpathian, but instead eternal evil; vampire. Their true selves now anathema to all things living.

There were a few 'lucky' ones. Males who'd found their lifemates. Color and emotion restored to them, so they could see the beauty and feel the joy of being with the only female who could ever let them know happiness. But Nolan saw the whole truth. Having a lifemate in their world now, meant suffering the pain you and your beloved would feel when she was unable to conceive. If she could conceive, bearing the loss of child after child to miscarriage. Or if a healthy child was born having it die in her arms a few months later because so few of their young ever saw their first birthday. Knowing that as a male he could only helplessly stand by as his lifemate died a little more each time she endured another loss. Feeling both your own and your lifemate's pain, as friends and relatives became your enemies and your children died.

A normal life wasn't possible for Carpathians anymore. The women and fledglings had to be protected constantly. Although they had the Carpathian abilities of telepathy, shape-shifting, strength and more, a visit to a friend was a cause for concern and worry. Even though the males didn't speak of it, if a female went outdoors without her lifemate, she was guarded by another male.

Maybe it was the memories of his own youth, when he had been allowed to explore far and wide, when he'd lived and grown as a Carpathian, not hiding his true nature for fear of bringing danger to his family, but something in Nolan rebelled at thought of raising a family where it would be surrounded by constant fear and persecution.

The bonded Carpathians were tied to doomed future. They threw around the word 'hope' all the time. As though, hoping for a better future would change the reality of what they faced. As though, there was reason to believe they could stop the destruction of their species. Their researchers and doctors hadn't really discovered any answers in past twenty years only that their enemies were stronger, more organized and much more myriad than they'd ever guessed.

There were no long term solutions. Not unless, 'find your lifemate and have a baby' was a solution, and Nolan didn't believe it was. No matter how he looked at it, towns decimated by the Black Death had had more reason to look forward the future than his fellow Carpathians did. And yet they were actively searching out lifemates and trying to have children. It was foolish and selfish.

Nolan had lived with no emotions for many hundreds of years, he recognized there was more darkness than light in his soul. He'd been fighting vampires since his fledgling days ended, the pull of darkness was inevitable. He knew, though, he would choose the dawn before he chose a lifemate.


	2. Chapter 2

"How is it you don't know where she is now?" Mikhail asked. Nolan was across the room from where Mikhail sat next to Raven on a large leather couch in the den. The space, while large wasn't intimidating at all. In fact, it was decorated in way that encouraged visitors to relax and feel at home.

The rest of the group was scattered about, standing or sitting as was their wont. As Nolan looked around the room he noticed that the couples had unconsciously arranged themselves so that they were either within touching distance of their mate or had an unobstructed view of them.

Joie was seated in a chair that matched Nolan's. He saw her hand stroke the butter soft material. The gesture betrayed her nervousness at being in the prince's home discussing an unknown relative of her lifemate's. He'd heard she was more comfortable tracking killers and protecting those who hired her as a bodyguard than in this more formal setting. But Syndil was going to be here in a weeks time and Joie was determined to take every advantage available to them to ensure her child's health when it was born.

Carpathians were dependent on the earth to sustain, nourish, and heal them and they'd recently discovered it was becoming toxic. Their researchers believed the poisons in the soil was the reason so many of the children weren't surviving and might even be the reason the so many of the women were miscarrying their children and having difficulties becoming pregnant in the first place. Syndil had the ability to heal the earth. Syndil, Nolan believed, was one of the few reasons that had for hope. He knew Asta, too shared that unique ability.

His gaze was again drawn to movement of Joie's hand, he could tell the feel of the luxurious fabric helped to calm her. Nolan brushed his own hand against the arm of his chair, absently wondering at it's color. By touch alone he knew its approximate age, the process that had been used to create the final effect, he could even sense it was Savannah's favorite chair when she visited her parents. But there was no comfort, no feeling of any kind at all.

The silence in the room penetrated his thoughts. Traian had crossed the floor to his lifemate, lifted her out of her chair, sat down himself then settled her on his lap. The whole time he glared directly into Nolan's eyes. Without breaking his stare, he slowly lifted the hand Nolan had been gazing at, and held it in his own. Everyone else was looking to Nolan, waiting for him to answer Mikhail.

Leaning back in the chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him, Nolan said, "As you know, Asta could have come home after her parents deaths. Even after she ended her mourning and left the cave she'd slept in for so long, she could have returned." He glanced over at the couple standing by the fireplace. Francesca had been little more than a baby at the time but Gabriel had been full grown. Nolan was sure he, at least, knew Asta's reason for leaving. It was probable Traian did, too. "She stayed away for the same reason she and her parents left in the first place."

Gabriel Daratrazanoff shifted uncomfortably at Nolan's words. His lifemate, Francesca, closed her eyes as if in pain. Mikhail saw their reaction and demanded, "And what reason was that?"

"Asta is more ancient that any of us here, Mikhail," Nolan leaned forward as he spoke, he looked at Traian for confirmation.

Traian nodded, "Not by much, I believe she was still a fledgling when I and Gabriel and Lucien where born. But yes, she is older."

"She'd lived so many years and never questioned her future would be as a lifemate and mother, but she remained unclaimed, bound to no male," Nolan said. "She felt useless and unneeded by her people. Besides that, Asta knew that as an unclaimed female she was a source of worry and dissension among the males. Especially as the number of girl children born to us grew fewer. She was older than I am now when her parents decided spend a few years traveling. Asta just wanted to leave here, where she felt like a failure. So she went with them."

"Are you saying she still feels that way? That even now she doesn't want to be found?" Raven blurted the questions.

"That is what I assume," he replied.

"But, Nolan" Savannah asked, standing in Gregori's loose embrace, her back lightly touching his chest, "how can she know whether or not her lifemate has been born since she left?"

"Have none of you ever wondered," Nolan answered her with a question of his own, "why, we hunters, who have been all over the world pursuing our enemies, why we have always been able to find healing herbs native to this region, growing near places that were perfect for us to rest? The soil in those places rich and soothing, reminding us of home?

Have you never thought it odd, that without fail there was always a store or a craftsman in areas we settle, who sells the candles we need for our healing rituals?"

"Savannah, she knows us," Nolan told her. "Asta doesn't make herself known, but she has seen and nurtured every child born to a Carpathian in her lifetime, every woman converted from human to Carpathian. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that when all of us join in a healing chant that her voice isn't also there, lost among ours. I think, perhaps, we don't notice it because she's always been there, a part of us."

The den filled with conversation at Nolan's words. He stayed silent, listening to what they said, weighing the impact of his revelation.

He watched the four females standing near the fireplace, they were obviously torn between wanting her home where she could be safe and loved, and protecting her privacy so she wasn't exposed to more pain. It was Francesca's reaction he waited for, though. Francesca a classic Carpathian beauty, was tall with long black hair. And she was obviously struggling with some deep emotion. Nolan didn't even try to guess what it might be.

"Gabriel," she called to him, "you know when I was child, and saw you that first time, when you and your brother walked through our camp. That I knew you were my lifemate. I didn't think it was important at the time, but after you'd passed by Asta came to me. She was so tiny that even as a child I was able to look her in the eye." Francesca smiled slightly at the memory. "She walked with me and we talked about many things. She told me then that my feelings for you were true. Later, I thought it was because I had been a child that I never doubted her words. But now, I wonder. There was a power in her words, I felt it. I think that power helped me to stay strong enough to wait for you."

Francesca was agitated and Gabriel couldn't understand what about her story was upsetting her. He tried to soothe her. "You didn't do anything wrong by listening to her or finding strength and peace in what she said," Gabriel lifted her chin to look her in the eye. "Asta wanted you hear her or she wouldn't have approached you."

"No, I know, but listen, even as young as I was, I sensed a sadness in her as we talked. I wondered why my having a lifemate would her affect her that way." She laid her head against her lifemate's shoulder, "I think I know why talking to me made her sad, Gabriel." Francesca turned to face the Prince who was speaking quietly with Gregori and Traian. She raised her voice slightly, "Mikhail, I think Asta is _znal_."

Nolan froze at her words, if what Francesca said was true, he truly was damned. If Asta was _znal_ then the thing he had been telling himself he did not want, was in reality the only thing giving him a reason to go on.

"_Znal?_" said Savannah, "What is that?"

"It is the title of a female who knows with absolute certainty which male Carpathian a female is supposed to bond with," Traian told her. "I remember the women would meet with a _znal _before any bonding rituals took place. It must have been to help the female be sure the male who courted her was the one she was supposed to be with. I'd practically forgotten they'd ever existed.

"Based on your reaction to your encounter with Asta," Gregori, the healer, said to Francesca, "she may be able to use her gift to somehow begin the bonding."

"Can you imagine how that gift, the ability to know and aid lifemates, added to her sorrow?" Francesca said to the room at large.

"It's so easy for the male to know," said Raven, "the restoration of his emotions and sight are absolute giveaways, but the woman, she doesn't know she's found her other half the way a male does. And while she's dealing with an almost out of control male, she is overwhelmed by her own emotional highs and lows. Human woman have even more changes to adjust to and things to learn than Carpathian females. And all she hears from her lifemate is 'trust me, this is supposed to happen.' "

Raven sighed, and leaned heavily into Mikhail's side. "Asta's ability to know, for us, the females, would be so helpful now, especially with so many males finding their lifemates among humans. I know I would have appreciated speaking with her when I met you, Mikhail." she caught Gregori with a mock glare. "And most especially when you decided on our daughter, dark one."

"It's not just the females, Raven. I, too, would have found comfort in knowing Savannah would be able to find happiness with me as her lifemate," he replied, his hand resting on Savannah's shoulder.

"It makes me wonder," Joie struggled to sit up straight, "when you think about how Asta has made sure the hunters have the things they need to survive far from their home, doing what she can for them while remaining undetected. If she isn't also helping our males meet their lifemates, too." She could tell Traian was about to disagree with her. "Just think about it for a second, Traian. There really are very few women in the world who can be converted to Carpathian, but in the past few years it seems like you males are practically tripping over us when you walk out your front door."

Joie looked at Raven and said, "You lived in the States, out of all the places in the world, what made you decide to vacation here when you wanted to get away?" She laid her hand on Traian's arm. "I'm not saying she is responsible for all the chance encounters, just that she may have nudged a few of us in the right direction."

"Nolan, if she is so determined to not be found," Mikhail asked, "how did you come to know her?"

He'd known the question was going to be asked but he didn't want to answer it. "We, all of us know her, Mikhail.", Nolan walked over to the shelves full of books. He lifted his hand to them and a slim volume, obviously very old, jumped into his hand. "_The Development of Medicine Using Herbals and Pharmacology and Related Subjects._ It's a good book, a little out of date now but very informative, have you read it?" Nolan continued walking slowly along the wall. Another, very large book slid toward him. "_Internet Investing_. I use most of the suggestions in this one." He tossed the books onto a table and continued. "Here's one about an abandoned city found in Brazil in 1829 written by the assistant of one of archeologists who led the expedition." Nolan gestured with his hand and again he was holding a book, he looked at the title. "Ah," he said aloud, _'Always You'_, the first book in the infamous _Always_ series, have you ladies read them?" Nolan was turning away from the books when another one glided toward him from underneath the sofa.

Mikhail bent and picked it up, _"The Idiot's Guide to Holiday Baking," _he announced, then gave a bark of laughter. Everyone tried to hide their amusement as a hotly blushing Raven quickly plucked the book from his hands and stuffed it back where it came from.

Nolan, not knowing what caused their reaction to the cookbook, decided discretion was definitely the better part of valor and let it pass. "These books and many others are how I got to know her. She wrote all of them. Ever since she went to the Americas she's been studying, teaching and writing.

"Over the years I must have read most everything she's ever written. A few months ago I made the connection between two authors who supposedly lived hundreds of years apart. I knew both books had been written by the same person, and that whoever the author truly was, she wasn't human. After that I was able to find out the other names she'd written under. It seemed impossible that there was an unknown Carpathian writing everything from self-help books to spy novels to children's literature, but I thought it best to find out for sure. So I decided to contact her and see if she would respond.

"Contact her," asked Gabriel, "you have a mental bond with her?"

"No," Nolan shrugged, "I emailed her." He tossed _Always You, _by Mary Sue Jenkins to Gabriel. "Her fan site and email address are on the back page."

"You read a romance novel?" Gabriel laughed.

"It was the only book at the village store I hadn't already read," Nolan didn't meet anyone's eyes as he sat back down.

Savannah relieved Gabriel of the book and turned to the back, "I never really paid attention to the picture of her." She held the book open and showed it to the room, "Is this a good shot of her?" she asked.

"I don't think that is Asta, she--" Traian began. But before he could complete his thought Nolan interrupted him.

"Of course it's not her," he sounded almost disgusted. "Asta's hair is so blonde that in the moonlight it's white. And her features are so delicate she looks almost like a child." He pointed to the picture, "This woman, whoever she is, cannot possibly be the woman I remember."

"Did you know Asta well?" Joie softly asked. She was surprised by his reaction to the picture and wanted keep him talking about the intriguing female.

Nolan held the book on herbal medicine, his fingers ran back and forth across the raised lettering on its cover as he answered her, "No, I only met her once. Long before our world was changed so drastically by the Turks. Back in those days the Gregorski's and the Sejka's didn't interact if they could avoid it. For some reason, I never knew what caused it, there were harsh feelings between our two families and we only saw each other when we had to. It's wasn't until after the massacre that stupidity was put aside and forgotten."

"However were you able to meet her then?" Jolie encouraged him to continue.

Nolan relaxed back in the chair, a small smile on his face, "I was young, younger even than Eleanor's son Josef. Prince Vlad had called a council and representatives of all the families were there. While the adults were meeting with the Prince, I was exploring the area. On our second night there, I saw Asta all alone collecting herbs. No one was watching over her. She was wearing some sort of turquoise dress and looked very different from any Carpathian woman I'd ever seen before. She was so very beautiful with long pale hair, and she was tiny. I considered myself very manly and tall standing next to her.

"I didn't realize at first she was a Gregorski. Looking back I don't think it would have mattered if I had known, I wanted to be with her. So I went up to her and offered to carry her basket. From then on, she didn't have a moments peace from me during that council. Each evening when the meetings started I would track her down and carry her basket and ask her questions all night long, just so I could listen her voice," Nolan seemed reluctant to finish the story, as though he wished there was more to say.

Joie saw Gregori looking at Nolan with the same intensity she felt. With her eyes she asked him the question she couldn't speak aloud. Gregori's slight shrug was his only reply.

"Ahem," said Traian clearing his throat, "that's an amazingly clear memory for something that happened so long ago."

Nolan sat up straight, "I've lost color and emotion, Traian, not the use of my mind," he almost snapped out the reply.

"No doubt," Savannah whispered to herself.

"What?" Nolan turned in the chair to face her.

"Nothing important. So, you emailed Asta, she replied and eventually she told you who she really was?" asked Savannah.

"She did finally answer me, but no, she didn't tell me much. I think the first few replies weren't even written by her," he said. "In fact, I wasn't absolutely sure she was Asta Gregorski until just before dawn this morning. I got on the computer when I woke last night and decided to do a search of all the pen names I thought were hers. I kept looking and modifying the search, after an hour or so I found her online journal. When I finished reading it, I knew without a doubt who she was." Nolan didn't know who there was internet savvy enough to realize what he'd just revealed.

**__**

"What?" three voices said simultaneously. '_That would be Francesca, Joie, and Gregori,' _Nolan thought to himself.

"She recorded her life story?" Prince Mikhail's sounded both astonished and angry. "Where anyone could read it?"

'_And the prince,' _he added.

"I have a print out of it for you," Nolan took the papers from his jacket and handed them to Mikhail. "There's nothing in there that even hints of her being Carpathian. It's only if you already know who she is that can you put it all together."

"Even so," said Gabriel, "it was irresponsible of her to write anything about our history. If you figured out who she was some one else could, too." He looked to the prince, "I'd like to read that when you're done Mikhail, I want to know if anyone has been endangered by this. She shouldn't be writing about us."

Nolan turned his blue gaze on the tall hunter, "I already told you, there is nothing in there that reveals her Carpathian roots. It is all presented as only her thoughts about life and ideas for stories she'd like to write."

"But still--" Traian obviously agreed with Gabriel.

"But still, what,?" Nolan asked the offended males. "You are fine with her hiding herself away for almost six hundred years because her mere presence causes problems for unmated males, but still you'd like her to use her gift to make things less complicated for those who have found their lifemates. I don't think you are objecting to what she did to support our hunters in the America's. Gabriel, I know for a fact your twin, the ancient and powerful, Lucien, and his lifemate were aided by her while he was in America. Without her, he might have died."

Nolan stood and addressed all of them. "It seems to me that we have, all of us easily accepted the things she's done for our benefit, and now we just as easily criticize her for doing the one thing she has to fill the loneliness she lives with every day."

He struggled to find the words that would make them see how much they all owed to Asta, "For our good, she removed herself from the society that is her birthright. For our good, she plants herbs in the very earth she's healed to help make us strong. For our good, she teaches humans skills that aid in our survival,"

Nolan looked at each of the couples in the room with him. "For your good, each one of you, she used her gift so you would have the chance to experience an eternity of happiness," His eyes raked over each of the males. "You sit here with your lifemates next to you, with no fear you will ever lose your soul, able to feel that lifemate's love for you, able to find enjoyment in the company of your friends," Nolan looked at Traian, whose hand was protectively laying over his lifemate's stomach, "able to feel both fear and hope for the future. Asta helped to bring that into your life."

"It is dishonorable for any of us to judge her decision to write her thoughts when it is clear that all her actions for over _two thousand years_, have only been for the good of all Carpathians. Asta has been a friend, relative and nurturer to everyone in this room, to every Carpathian living. And she's never asked any of us for anything. How much more do you want to take from her?"

"I never said I wanted to take anything away from her," Gabriel murmured to his lifemate, who wasn't looking very pleased with him at the moment.

Prince Mikhail looked up from the papers he'd been reading. "But now she has placed herself in a very dangerous situation, hasn't she, Nolan?"

"Without question. But I doubt she thinks so," Nolan said. "It was foolhardy of her to write that. I printed out copies of her newspaper's articles, as well as any other articles relating to the crime that I could find. They're at the bottom of the pile."

Mikhail began reading the first one but stopped when Raven raised her eyebrow at him, he handed it to her, then started on the second.

"It's about those human vampire hunters," Raven said. "Asta found a group of them in Houston. Oh my goodness, she must have infiltrated their organization and gained their trust." Raven looked at the group in the den. "She exposed the aspects of their operation that threatened humans. Every member of that group the police could find was arrested and jailed."

Raven read from another article. "It says here, that they think some of their computer files were destroyed before the authorities could get to them." Raven mused out loud, "Asta must have done that to get rid of any information pertaining to Carpathians," she looked down again. "What they did find, though, was more than enough to ensure their convictions. Most received a death sentence," Raven glanced through the other articles. "She makes them appear to be lunatics. She exposed them all without a single allusion that any of their allegations were based on anything other than their own sick minds.

"You're right, Nolan," Raven handed all the stack back to her lifemate, "no one, not even the police suspect the existence of vampires, let alone Carpathians. This story was covered like it was just an ordinary, or should I say, completely human incident. None of us even knew about these trials and we are, all of us, always alert to any news of these vampire hunting groups."

"In this story she mentions names of leaders in other cities," Mikhail told them.

"If they ever find her, they'll kill her," Francesca looked worried.

"If the vampires who control these groups find her, she'll be…" Joie stopped and demanded of her lifemate. "Traian, we have to find her."

"In the last email I received from her, she told me she had moved to another city but she didn't tell me where," Nolan said. "She thinks I only know her as a human author of books, she has no idea I suspected her of being Carpathian or that I discovered she worked as a reporter in Texas."

"It is unacceptable that any Carpathian female be as alone and unprotected as Asta is, even if she was living in relative safety," Mikhail said, "but Asta's situation is dire. She needs to be found and convinced to come home."

"I have given you all the information I have about her," Nolan said, "if you want copies of the emails she sent, I'll get them to you." Nolan was uncomfortable at the idea of sharing with anyone the private messages between Asta and himself. Even though there was nothing remotely personal in any of them, she had written them to him and he felt possessive of them. But he knew he was obligated to make the offer. He made a shallow but graceful bow to the prince, "I know you will find her, Mikhail, and bring her back safely. Thank you for acting so quickly."

Nolan was grateful Asta's fate was in the prince's capable hands, he was confident she would be well cared by his people. He knew if she had remained in danger, he wouldn't have been able to carry through on his decision.

Nolan was so tired of the emptiness of his existence. He understood somewhat, Asta's decision to leave her homeland so long ago. He, too believed he had nothing to offer anymore. He recognized the strength she showed by leaving and building a new life. That in her self-imposed exile, she chose help so many, both human and Carpathian.

He was a hunter, though, he had been for eight hundred years, it wasn't in him to be what Asta was. If he'd had any other ability to enrich his life or anyone else's, it was long gone now. The only talent left to him was his skill at killing. His unique ability to utterly shield himself from all minds, vampire, Carpathian and human, helped him to become what he was. A predator. And because of his success at that he now had a monster inside him that was slowly taking over his soul. He had no lifemate to balance out the darkness inside him. He only knew a gray world filled with the hunger for blood and the rush of a kill. Many of his fellow hunters found the thrill of it irresistible. Though Nolan felt it, he knew he could withstand the lure of it longer. He was just too tired to fight temptation anymore. Tired of watching his friends lose their souls and then being sent to destroy them. Tired of depending on those around him having to share their impressions of happiness and joy because he couldn't feel it for himself. Tired of living, knowing he never would.

He'd given all they could ever ask of him, there was nothing left inside him to draw on.

He'd made his choice and wanted to act on it now.

Nolan started toward the door.

"Nolan, you are not leaving here." The words stopped him in his tracks. That wasn't the voice of Nolan's companion and neighbor. It was Prince Mikhail. Ancient. Powerful. Royal. And demanding obedience. The prince gave him a parody of a smile, "Not unless you are anxious to begin making your travel plans."


	3. Chapter 3

Nolan realized then that his prince, maybe all of them, knew what he had planned. He turned back to face the Prince. He held himself at his full height, his perfect features a mask of coldness, "Prince Mikhail, I have always honored my duty to our people, to you. I have hunted and destroyed members of my own family who turned vampire. I have spent three hundred years guarding the lands to the east of us. I have guarded the boundaries of our own lands here. No enemy I ever faced is still walking the earth today." He stood before them all, his hands held in front of him in an almost pleading gesture, "Don't ask this of me."

Mikhail looked at the male in front of him. For quite some time, he had been aware of Nolan pulling farther away from them all. The tasks he'd been giving Nolan for months; relaying information between him and others he had no blood bond with and ensuring the areas they had already cleared of vampires were still secure, were mostly given just so Nolan would have something to focus on, something to live for. He didn't think Nolan would ever let the beast within him lead him to utter darkness, but that didn't mean it was clawing at him, finding another way to defeat him. Mikhail was determined it would not happen.

Nolan's actions tonight were completely out of character for him, for any unmated male. Mikhail saw this as an opportunity to save one of his most loyal hunters and, at the same time, return to them a powerful and valuable female. One who was already in full possession of her abilities. He would not let this chance to strengthen the people who depended on him to lead them to a new future, slip through his fingers.

"I am _not_ asking," Mikhail assured him.

"My Prince," Gregori broke his silence and asked, "would you mind if I spoke privately with Nolan for a moment?"

"You may speak until dawn," was the reply, "but my decision stands. Asta _will be _brought back and Nolan will be the one to get her." Mikhail looked directly into Nolan's shattered blue gaze, "You will leave at the next rising."

Nolan gave the prince a stiff nod and left the room. Gregori's eyes swept the room, he felt their fear for the hunter and their unwavering faith in him to help Nolan find it within himself to carry on. He saw Savannah's eyes fill with tears. It wouldn't be easy to sway the thinking of an ancient who'd decided on a course of action. Nolan had earned the right to their respect. Gregori knew he would expect them to honor this decision.

But Nolan had made Gregori's lifemate cry. He sighed, he would fix it. He could do no other.

Gregori followed Nolan to a small sitting room. He'd already lit several of the candles that were positioned about the room. Their dim light reflected off light yellow walls. The delicate furniture was painted white, and the room was decorated with butterflies, some made of glass others of gold. They were obviously in Raven's personal retreat.

Neither man sat and both looked absurdly out of place in the ultra feminine room. "What do you want to say to me, Gregori?" Nolan wanted to know, "The prince has ordered me to go to Asta, I am honor bound to do as he commands. Do not worry that I will shirk my duty."

"Of all our males, I have had the fewest fears of you ever turning your back on your obligations to our prince." Gregori assured him. He took a breath, "Nolan, I am considered to be one our most learned males, I know maybe more than I should about many things, but your words and actions tonight are a mystery to me."

"How so?" Nolan said. "Greeting the dawn has always been an honorable action for a male to take before he turns."

"The darkness in you is great, I know," Gregori's voice was calm and soothing. Nolan found himself listening intently, "But the beast we all wrestle with daily is not beyond your strength to subdue. Why would you take this action while there is still hope you could find your lifemate?"

"What if there is no hope of my finding her, Gregori?" Nolan was tense, his mouth thinned out. He bit out his reply, "Should I wait until it is too late? Until I, too, become the thing I have hunted for so long?"

"Have you listened to yourself this evening?" Again Gregori used his voice to calm the hunter, "Can you not tell you have been affected by your contact with Asta? Affected the way males are when they have interacted with their lifemate."

"Asta is not my lifemate." he said flatly. His expression stark.

"I believe she is," Gregori said just as baldly.

Nolan felt the beast inside him rise up, "You are wrong," his voice was raspy. "You forget that I spent eight nights with her. I was too young then, to recognize her as a lifemate, but if she is _znal_, and I know you believe she is, she would have known. She would have waited until I reached maturity so I could claim her." Nolan battled anger at Gregori's intrusion into his personal affairs and despair that the dark one could be right. That he indeed was reacting to Asta as a lifemate.

When he happened upon Asta's books, he found himself engaged in the stories, no matter the topic. He even read her children's books from cover to cover. At first, he thought it was just because they were well written. But then he discovered it was only the books Asta authored that touched him, that only her words actually let him feel what her characters felt, that soothed him and gave his spirit a moments respite from its unending desolation. He would have been a fool not to consider the possibility the beautiful woman he remembered from his youth could be his lifemate. But if her soul did not reach out to his in the same way, then what he felt did not matter. He would not, he could not force a bonding on her.

"Even if she is, I have nothing to offer her," Nolan choked out the words. "My life, the things I've done, have left me with a soul full of darkness. I will never be completely free of it. And I will not be so selfish as to ask her to share in a future in which I cannot guarantee her safety or the safety of any children she might bear me." The emptiness inside him was slowing filling with rage at his meaningless life.

Gregori was known as the greatest healer the Carpathians had, but Nolan's pain was not of the body and Gregori had no herb or chant to cure him. He could only tell him what he knew to be true.

"It would be selfish to condemn her to another millennia of loneliness." he said. "You know if she is your lifemate that she will always feel as incomplete as you do. That no matter how powerful she may be alone, she needs to be bonded to her lifemate to reach her full potential.

"Nolan, you have become what we needed you to be for us to survive, so that one day our world can be safe and thrive the way it is meant to." Gregori remembered his own fight for sanity before Savannah became his anchor to the light, "And you have fiercely held onto your honor while you've done it. Not all of us can say that. I cannot.

"I do not know why Asta did not know you for what you were all those years ago," he said, "I know very little of the _znal,_ but you owe it to yourself and Asta, as well as all Carpathians to go to her again and find out if she is your lifemate."

"Gregori, I accepted the fact I would never have a lifemate long ago. Part of me is sure I do not even want one. But I worry that if I go to her and she does not accept me as her lifemate, I may be a danger to her. I have never lost control of the monster inside, if it ever does happen, even you would find it difficult to defeat me. There would be no hunter there to stop me if I turn."

Nolan laid his soul bear to him. "I do not want to go, I do not want to take the chance. I do not want to discover the promise Asta represents is an empty hope, a false dream. I'm old, older even than you, you know." He drew himself up to his full height, and demanded of the healer, "Do not fight me on my decision to greet the dawn and end this barren existence. I do not want to endure it any longer."

"We have spent too much time with humans," Gregori was utterly unmoved. "We are not the independent beings they are. Carpathians are connected to each other too closely for one to make a decision that does not impact us all.

"What you are going through is unfortunate, but it is not unique. Others have overcome more. Greeting the dawn is an honorable choice when you can no longer fight the darkness, but you can and so you must," he said. "If you do not, you will have failed every Carpathian who did endure, and especially those, like yourself who are still fighting against it,"

Savannah had been in his mind all during his conversation with Nolan. She knew what he was about to say, _"Don't do it, Gregori, he doesn't deserve that," _she warned him.

"Perhaps not, he replied.

"You do not want to be remembered as a coward," he told Nolan.


	4. Chapter 4

Gregori joined the others in the den. He was alone.

"Where--" Francesca began, when they all heard the howling of wolves outside. They were unusually loud but the sound faded quickly.

"He has left, then," Mikhail said. "You handled that well, my old friend."

"The darkness eats at his soul differently than it does for us," Gregori said. "The beast is there but instead of fighting to be free, it is devouring him from the inside. I just gave it something else to want to destroy."

"But a 'coward'? You called an ancient male who's been a hunter for eight or nine hundred years, a 'coward'?" Joie was shocked.

"Nolan has defeated vampires more ancient than himself." Savannah framed Gregori's face in her hands, "He battles alone more often than not, even though there are other males here to call on. You're lucky he didn't punch you, or eviscerate you, or whatever it is you Carpathian males do when you make each other angry. Gregori," she sighed his name and sank into her favorite chair. "I don't know if you were unbelievably brave or brain dead stupid."

"As he did not strike me, let us just assume I was brave and touchingly compassionate," Gregori stood behind Savannah running his fingers lightly through her hair. "There is no doubt Nolan will go to Asta, we can only trust that things will work out between them the way we all want them to."

__

'And you, cherie_, have no more reason to weep.' _he told her.His hand tangled in her hair as Savannah sent him a tidal wave of her love.

__

'You saved him because of me?' she lifted her arm and took his hand in hers.

__

'I breathe because of you,' he looked tenderly down at her. 'Mon Dieu, _you are crying again.'_

Traian was absently rubbing Joie's swollen belly as he looked around the room. His little girl kicked at him each time he touched a certain spot on her mother's tummy. Both father and daughter were enjoying the game, "If he encounters those vampire hunters while he is there," he said, "they will both be in danger. Who here has had a blood exchange with him so he can contact us if he needs help?"

"I know Byron has," said Mikhail, "but he recently left for Italy. If he's the only one, we can get word through Jacques. I should have thought of this."

"No one expects you to think of everything," Raven immediately leapt to her lifemate's defense. "Nolan is an experienced hunter, and you saved his life tonight by sending him to Asta."

"She's right, Mikhail," Gabriel pulled Francesca to her feet as they prepared to take their leave, "and if worse comes to worst he can use his cell phone."


	5. Chapter 5

The music from the Sissiboo Cove Halloween Fair could be heard all the way to the back row of the temporary, dirt parking lot. The lights from the rides and fairway were just beginning to glow in the night sky as the sun began its descent. Tired parents who'd spent the day watching over their now cranky and grubby young children, herded the little ones into minivans and SUV's. Threats of baths and bedtimes could be heard as car doors swung shut and engines started.

As dusk turned to night and one group of fair-goers left, another replaced them. The fair was being taken over by mostly young adults who were relieved to finally be out from under parental supervision and anxious to enjoy the night with friends. Almost all of them were wearing some sort of costume and makeup as they joined in the celebration of the pseudo holiday.

What appeared to be a stray dog padded slowly toward the edge of the fair, away from the cars and the people dressed as everything from soldiers to superheroes, who lined up at the gate to buy entrance tickets. He was a large creature, black and menacing. The few who glimpsed him were astonished to see a wolf, but when they told their companions what they'd just seen they couldn't prove it. When they looked back, the animal was gone.

Nolan felt the glances of the humans. Although he'd blurred his image from them, some were able to penetrate his carelessly called up screen. He wasn't truly paying attention to his surroundings, he'd risen only an hour ago, and hadn't fed for two risings. He'd been traveling from dusk to dawn since he'd discovered Asta's trail. Now that he'd caught up with her, his thoughts were focused on her. He was consumed with determination to find her. Tonight. She was here, he could feel it.

When he arrived in Texas, Nolan spent weeks trying to re-trace her steps after she left Houston. He went to her workplace, searched the minds of her co-workers and the places she'd lived. After she got embroiled with the vampire hunters she'd moved often. Nolan found his first real lead when he was searching a former home of hers. He was outside the building when he saw a couple he realized lived next door to her at the apartment complex. Though they were unaware of him, he directed their conversation to Asta. The woman went inside and got a postcard Asta sent her. At that moment the wind inexplicably picked up and snatched it out of her light grasp. The breeze carried it away and they quickly lost sight of it. In fact, as the card blew away, they immediately forgot about it and the entire conversation.

From the post mark Nolan was led to another small town. After that, with his hunter's ability to pursue his prey and sheer male stubbornness it wasn't long before he was sure she was traveling with this carnival.

Nolan stopped near the trailers the carnival workers traveled in and was about to shift forms when two girls, one dressed as a fairy the other a vampire, approached him. Nolan was surprised they saw him so clearly and that they ignored his compulsion to overlook him and walk away.

"Janie," said the fairy, "look how beautiful he is."

"Do all wolves have such ice blue eyes?" asked the vampire.

As the teenagers got closer, Nolan noticed that underneath their make-up they were identical twins. He made the compulsion to leave stronger.

"Jeannie, let's get out of here," the vampire reached for the fairy's hand, "we were supposed to meet everybody at the ferris wheel about fifteen minutes ago."

After Nolan was sure they were gone and wouldn't return, he shifted into his true form. It didn't take him long to find a couple of tired carnies on their way to their trailer to rest. Nolan fed well from them and strength poured back into his depleted body. He knew it was foolish but knowing Asta was here, that tonight after nine hundred years of waiting he would finally know one way or another if she was his, for just a moment, he felt invincible.

He heard bells and buzzers from the carnival games and the happy chatter of the humans that filled the air. He felt their excitement as they lined up in an attempt to win cheaply made, useless prizes. The unfamiliar smell of deep-fried foods; everything from meats to something called a Twinkie, inundated his highly developed sense smell. He ignored it and the vendors calling out to potential customers, he barely noted the delighted screams coming from the rides.

Nolan's long, purposeful stride ate up ground as he scanned with both his eyes and his mind. Asta was here, he was sure of it. He was going to find her, he _had_ to find her. He refused, though, to think about what he would do when he finally had her in his sights.

When he'd set out, he'd told himself he was only doing this so he could fulfill his obligation to the prince and return her to her home. But the more time he'd spent re-tracing her steps, listening to people speak of her, touching objects she had held, he became less focused on restoring her to her birthplace and more on just getting to her. The pull he felt as a fledgling to be with her, was nothing compared to what he felt now. Even if the prince told him to leave the search for her to someone else, he doubted he could. And although he'd just fed, he felt his incisors lengthen at the thought of another male taking his place tracking Asta. _'Mine.' _the thought came unbidden.

Nolan was quartering his way through the fair and had just started down the last row of the midway when without warning he felt her reaching out with her mind. Though her touch was light, barely even noticeable, it hit him like a brick wall. It never occurred to him he would remember so clearly the feel of her touch. But he did.

Since he'd been following Asta the need to be with her had become urgent. The monster inside him driving him, demanding her presence. But right now, at just this moment, as he felt her inside him and reveled in the knowledge he had found her, the beast laid down, content while peace flooded Nolan's soul. He was standing still, blocking the middle of the make-shift aisle, his eyes closed. The crowd flowed around him as he stood there and let himself feel. Without thinking his mind reached out to answer Asta's call. He immediately realized she was sending out a compulsion to come to her.

And it wasn't directed to him.

The beast was on its feet and howling for blood. Nolan's eyes flew open and were immediately assaulted by the lights all around him. Flashing blue and red lights from a shooting gallery beside him, pink lights in front of him that spelled out 'cotton candy,' all of it a miracle. None of it mattered. Nolan was at the mercy of the beast, and it would accept nothing but the utter annihilation of whoever stood between him and his mate.

Nolan had been a hunter for hundreds of years, he slipped easily into the role. She would have no warning of his approach. If she tried to escape him he would find her again. He snarled at the thought, there was no place in this world she could hide from him. A low growl came from his throat, a wordless and deadly threat to his unknown rival, _'No more.'_

He strode down the walkway until he reached a garish red tent. The gold glitter used to decorate it only emphasized its age and tackiness. The sign in front proclaimed, 'Madame Zia Fortune Teller'. There were at least ten people waiting their turn with the psychic. _'Asta,' _his smile was the merest bearing of teeth.

His first instinct was to push his way inside the tent, it never occurred to him anyone would be stupid enough to get his way. And, indeed, they wouldn't have. Nolan's eyes glowed red, his stance battle ready, his fangs a sharp and deadly weapon. None of the men passing by or standing near him even glanced in his direction. Each instinctively knew the tall man with death written on his face would take it as a challenge. One they would undoubtedly lose.

Although, the men pretended he wasn't there, Nolan drew the eyes of the women. They sensed his barely controlled anger, but were captivated by his good looks. With their eyes they wantonly stroked the body encased in black jeans and matching silk shirt. It was too easy to say he looked like movie star. He was a living, breathing fantasy come to life, and his passionate rage only added to his allure. Their eyes caressed his face, his body, his thick black hair that just reached the collar of his shirt. Their fingers itched to touch him.

Nolan stepped forward to enter the tent when he felt Asta's compulsion become less general as she focused it directly at someone behind him. He turned, ready, eager even to destroy the one who stood between him and his goal. It was a group of five teenaged girls. Among them were the two Nolan had chased away earlier. He stared at them, giving his body a chance to accept what his mind was telling it. There was no threat here. His eyes slowly became a distant blue again, he was able to breathe, and he slowed his heart rate. He stepped back from the entrance and waited to see what Asta was doing.

"Let's go in here," said Jeannie, the twin with pink wings.

"That looks _way_ cool," Janie grabbed her sister's arm, they left the others to get in line.

The tallest of the other three girls looked at the huge stack of tickets in her hand and said, "I can't, you need five tickets to get in there. I don't have enough."

"Neither do we," said the others. Although, they too, each had a handful of the paper vouchers. "You guys go ahead and get your fortune read and we'll meet you at the bean bag toss game. The guy running that booth was really cute."

Instead of having to go to the back of the line the two girls walked to the front as the humans who had been waiting their turn stepped back and allowed them to pass. The twins were next in line to see Madame Zia. Nolan walked to the side of tent, shifted into mist and went inside.

Asta was sitting at a small round table covered with the same shiny red material her tent was made of. On top of the table sat a glass ball in a cheap tin stand that barely held its weight. Asta was dressed in a long multi-colored skirt and a white top with a lacey fringe. A purple scarf was wrapped around her long, blonde hair and tied in a knot on the side.

She was holding the hand of a woman who sat across from her. While Nolan streamed into the space he heard the human woman thanking Madame Zia for helping her decide which pre-school to send her son to. At Nolan's entrance Asta dropped the hand and almost jumped from her chair. She stopped herself from looking over her shoulder, she knew she wouldn't see anything even if she did. Instead, Asta smiled warmly at the happy woman, "You are very welcome, I'm just glad you were able to see the heart of the director at Vista Academy is as good as the program." Both women stood as the session ended.

__

'You're here, aren't you? I can feel you. You're the one who's been sending me emails, you're the one who's been following me for weeks.' Asta sent the thought to him as she greeted the twins and pointed to the chairs for them to sit.

Nolan felt a fierce joy go through him as he answered her, _'Yes, Asta, I am here. I am the one.'_

__

'Well, you're just going to have to stay all misty and be quiet, this is very important.' Asta tried to dismiss him from her mind, as smiling and taking her seat, she prepared herself to talk to the two girls.

__

'I will be as still as a mouse,' he gave her his word. _'You will not know I am here.'_

If a snort could be sarcastic Asta's was, _'Just shush.'_

She turned her thoughts to the girls. "I am so glad you came to visit me," she told them. "Tell me what it is you want to know."

"Our parents," Jeannie began.

"Can we find them?" Janie finished. "Why did they leave us?"

Asta sat with her elbows on the table her palms facing up, each girl took one hand. She looked at them very closely compelling them to concentrate and listen to her every word. "Let us see what we can discover," Asta closed her eyes and scanned their minds for memories of their parents. The only ones she could find were from their infancy and deeply buried, Asta searched each of them and said, "I know they both loved you very much. They left you because of that love. They wanted you to have a safe and happy childhood so they left you with a caring family." Their parents had told the babies of their love over and over before they left them, hoping the girls would somehow remember their words and be comforted when they were older.

"It made your mother and father very sad that this was the only way they could keep you safe. But they also knew you each had abilities, gifts, you inherited from them. And that those gifts would help keep you safe while you were away from them. Although, you've been unaware of it, you've used your powers all you life. Your powers will grow as you get older and you will have to learn to control them." Asta looked directly at Janie, the vampire, "You have discovered this to be true, haven't you?"

Janie hadn't even shared with her sister some of the things she'd accidentally done. But lying to Madame Zia was impossible, she nodded.

"You will both come to know your gifts very well, and it will happen quite soon." Her hands tightened on theirs. She used her voice to beguile and influence them to take in every word she said. "Do not use them frivolously," she warned them. "Until you have completely mastered them they could be more of a danger than a help to you. Believe in them. They are good, _you_ are good. And some day because of them you will fine great joy. But right now, if they are used incorrectly they could draw evil to you. Promise me, you will be very careful with them." Neither girl could look away from the eyes of the beautiful woman, her words embraced them, sank deep into them. They stared at her wide-eyed, almost in a trance. Slowly they nodded their heads.

"Good," Asta said as released their hands and let the compulsion fade. "I do not know if your parents can be found in the way you want, but never doubt they have always been with you. Do you have any other questions for Madame Zia?" she asked, knowing they did.

Jeannie blinked a few times, clearing her head and smiled, "I do," she said, "will we leave Sissiboo Cove after we graduate?"

"I don't know," Asta said, smiling. She waved her hand over the crystal ball on the table, "why don't you look and tell me?"

The girl gazed at the glass orb, "Is that really me? I look so adult." Her expression went from a youthful grin to one of almost fright as she watched the scene in the crystal ball play out, "He's not very nice, is he?"

"No, Jeannie, he's not particularly nice," said Asta, "but he is a very good man."

"I think he loves me more than I can really understand," her voice was almost a whisper. Her hands and eyes never left the orb.

"That is true, too," Asta agreed with her, "but a time will come when you will be able to value him and what he has to offer you. I sincerely hope you remember all three things you learned about him tonight, because they are all equally true.

"Your turn, Janie," she said to the other twin, and Asta again waved her hand over the sphere.

"All I see is a house," she said. "It's made out of stone, and there are flowers all around the front. I could be happy there." Janie looked with wonder at the image.

"What else do you see?" Asta urged her to look deeper.

"It was abandoned a really long time ago by someone who was too sad to live in such a happy place. And it's not just because the house is so pretty that I want to be there." Janie glanced at the psychic, "It's because there are things there about me. It's like if I go there I can find a way to really understand me. I think it's something like that."

Asta knew she had seen enough, the imaged flickered once and then disappeared. "No, Janie, it's not something like that," she said. "It's exactly like that."

No one spoke for moment. The sounds of people laughing and talking outside the tent penetrated the intense mood inside. The females smiled at each other. For some reason, they each felt all was right with world and quietly shared the moment of happiness with each other.

"Thank you, Madame Zia," the girls said at the same time. They stood and the twins got ready to leave.

"One moment," called Asta, "I have a gift for each of you. But you can only keep it if you can tell me why I chose it for you." Asta reached into the pocket in her skirt and pulled out two pieces of jewelry. One was a delicate silver necklace with a small amber jewel. The other was a beautiful charm bracelet with four charms.

Jeannie took the necklace and laughed, "That's easy, the chain is made of silver feathers because Janie and I _always _wear matching feathers." They lifted their hair and showed Asta their earrings as proof. "And the amber is for his eyes. They were just this color right before he kissed me." Her voice got fainter with each word and ended in a whisper, a light blush stole over her cheeks.

"That's right," agreed Asta. She held the bracelet out to Janie, "Do you know why this is your gift?"

Janie touched the tarnished antique heart first. "This one means I will be loved. The feather is to remind me that I'm always stronger when I'm connected to my sister." Her finger tapped the next charm. "An opal. It's not just because it's our birthstone, it's because of our gifts. The ones you said our parents gave to us." Asta nodded. "And the key," Janie sighed, "if I can figure out what the key unlocks…, " she paused, "everything else will be okay."

"Very good! Both of you," Asta was very pleased with them and herself. She'd done all that she could do here in Arkansas and could now leave with a clear conscience. "Here let me put them on you." Asta whispered softly to each girl while she fastened the jewelry on them. When she was done, they left without a word. As they again became part of the crowd at the Halloween carnival, the two Carpathians inside the tent could hear Janie telling her sister she was tired of her vampire costume and wanted to win a cowboy hat from the shooting gallery to wear.

When her next patron failed to appear, Asta looked outside. "You sent all of them away, didn't you?" she said to the man taking shape behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

"Maybe they got tired of the wait," he suggested. Asta's color was high and she didn't seem to know what to do with her hands. Nolan could feel the waves of nervousness coming from her. Watching her hands almost flutter around her, his own suddenly felt awkward and he shoved them in the pockets of his jeans. He was not exactly sure what he felt, only that nothing and no one could make him leave.

He was very aware he was being bombarded by a surfeit of long-forgotten emotions as well as a few he'd never felt before. He tried to separate and identify each one, he did not want them controlling him.

Nolan couldn't tear his eyes away from her. Her face had been radiant when she'd spoken with the girls. And though the laughter and smiles she had shared with them had lightened his heart, he'd wanted nothing more than for them to leave so he could have her to himself.

"You showed those females many things," he said, taking a step closer to her, "will they remember it all?" He saw the outline of her legs as they moved within the confines of her silk skirt. The way her long hair cascaded down her back, touching her skirt at her waist and fanning over her shoulders to frame her breasts. Her slender curves were displayed in just the right way to entice him to reach out and hold her.

She held herself with confidence and awareness of her femininity but also with an undeniable innocence. She was a mystery to him and he found himself wanting to know everything she knew. Wanting to share with her everything she didn't. Looking at her, he saw in his mind's eye an image of her lying beneath him, her eyes full of passion, pleading with him to take her. Her arms reaching out to him to pull him close. He saw himself leaning over her to lick and tease the pulse at her neck, biting down as she opened for him and he slid deep … he felt his entire body tighten, fought to keep his expression neutral.

She could tell by his expression what he was thinking. Usually when men reacted to her that way she was repelled, sometimes she was amused. Her reaction to Nolan was different, something about him was different. It was as though he was an open fire burning hot in the wind. One that promised warmth but could easily burn her if she approached him wrong. Against her will she was affected by his arousal.

"By now, they barely remember anything about our visit," her voice was provocative and soft. She heard the sound of it and cleared her throat. She really needed him to stay in one spot so she could maintain a certain distance between them. She gestured for him to sit in a chair. He pretended not to notice. "They both believe the jewelry was given to them by their parents when they were babies. Their meeting with me will continue to fade from their minds until it seems like a dream," For every step Asta took back, Nolan inched forward. She knew the tent was small but she'd never felt claustrophobic in it before. Asta realized she was retreating from him and forced her feet to stop. She finished in a rush, her hands on her hips, "The things they learned here will stay in their minds, and hopefully influence their choices at the right time."

She stared at the man standing an arm's length away from her. She knew who he was. With those looks he could be none other than Nolan Sejka. She vividly recalled her one encounter with him. Her memories of him were of a boy, one so serious and careful to do the right thing. She remembered how closely he listened to every word she spoke about the plants she'd collected at that long ago council. He'd been meticulously polite and even though she could tell at times he wanted to run off and play, he had appointed himself her protector and never left her side. In his mind it was simple, it was a male's duty to protect a female. She was a female so he protected her.

Nolan spoke freely to her at that time, she learned all about the earnest young male. Listening to and observing him she'd found out that even as a child he'd been a very linear thinker. Nolan liked rules. He followed them and doubtless expected everyone else to do the same. Spending time with her, a Gregorski, was probably the only time he'd been disobedient during his entire childhood. It wasn't that he'd been afraid to face the consequences of defying his parents, he just didn't see any advantage to himself in doing it. His parents were reasonable, the more they trusted him the more freedom he was allowed.

She remembered him as an exceptionally handsome boy, _'But now…,' _she thought, her eyes warmed as her gaze traveled from the onyx buttons on his shirt, up to his face with its aristocratic features and aloof expression. His cold eyes met hers and she saw a blue flame begin to burn in them, the muscles in his cheeks relax and then he smiled. Just for her. The force of it hit her like an unexpected rain shower. It stunned her and stole her breath as it poured over her body, touching her everywhere. Her skin tingled, it burned. From deep inside, she shivered, _'now, he could break a woman's heart that smile.'_

'I cannot break a heart that has not been given into my keeping,' he sent the thought to her, his smile deepening, _'it would be against the rules.' _He saw her expression change from gentle musing to feminine awareness to shock. He wanted to laugh.

"Stay out of my head, Nolan," Asta pushed past him and stood at the other side of the tent, putting a whole seven feet between them. "You weren't invited in, and that's against the rules, too."

"I only used the path you used when you were thinking of me," his words were placating. His expression smug. She ignored him.

Nolan could tell she very much wanted him to sit. That both his proximity and height were making her nervous. He grabbed the back of a chair and pulled it toward him. Standing next to it, he calmly waited for her to take a seat. When she stayed at the wall of the tent, he said, "You want me to sit, do you not?"

Asta gave him a quick nod.

"Then please do so first, so I can do as you wish," with his slight accent and emphasis on just the right words he managed to exude an Old World charm even while wearing denim and leather boots. Asta told herself she was absolutely unimpressed as she gracefully took the seat. Her body, though, unconsciously responded to the times and places his manner brought back to her memory; she moved with the poise and refinement of a time long gone.

"So, tell me, Nolan, why are you here?" She hadn't spoken to another Carpathian who actually knew who she was since she left her parents in Tibet.

For half a millennia she'd lived in a world of humans. At first, she'd just survived, coming to terms with the death of her parents and the knowledge that her life was nothing like she'd supposed it would be. Letting the Carpathian world believe she'd been killed by vampires was the only way she could be sure she wouldn't have to face the conflict living among them caused. She'd had no idea there were other Carpathians here and wanted nothing more than to hide from the pain of her past. She decided to lose herself in this vast and unexplored land.

It was while she was in South America she first discovered some of the hunters Prince Vlad sent to guard their kind far from their homeland. It had started out as a game of sorts to find remote areas she knew the hunters would be attracted to for resting, to plant the herbs they would need for healing and to make the earth rich and nourishing for them. She'd lived in the towns near those places influencing the inhabitants there to be accepting of the strange behavior of their Carpathian neighbors. She found people with the skills to make the candles they needed so the potpourri of restorative herbs could be breathed into their bodies. All without the hunters ever being aware she'd been there.

Asta enjoyed the game of cat and mouse she played with them, even if she was the only one who knew they were playing. It wasn't just obligation that motivated her to do what she could to help the males of her race. She was proud of her Carpathian heritage and wanted to be connected to them and their efforts to make the world safer for them all.

But she didn't want anyone to know she was doing it. She knew every one of the hunters Prince Vlad sent out, had already lived through that horrible first meeting with each of them. Never again would she endure seeing the intense almost hopeful expression on the face of a male who, sensing she was unclaimed, came to her hoping, needing her to be his lifemate and watch it turn to surprised disappointment as he realized she was not the one for him. See him try to deny to himself and to her that it was so. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop herself from wondering how many of those males had since turned and were now either destroyed or spreading evil and suffering wherever they went. So she would make what contributions she could for the sake of her people, but she would not live among them.

Nolan hadn't come to her with that intent expression and he didn't look disappointed now.

Nolan had found his lifemate.

"Because Prince Mikhail sent me to get you," he crossed his long longs in front of him, and watched her face closely.

"Just you, no one else?" She looked at the opening of the tent as though she expected someone to come through it at any second.

"Why," he didn't like hearing she preferred another to find her, "is there someone else you wish to be here?"

"Why didn't you bring your lifemate with you?"

"My _lifemate_?"

"Yes, your lifemate. I can tell you have one and I know I haven't met her. I remember your _chel_. I never saw its match." At his blank look, she explained, "Your _chel _is the shape of your soul. Carpathians need two _chels_ to make one complete soul. I see them as shapes that fit together, like two puzzle pieces. I hoped you would find her, I am glad you did," she was curious about the female who had saved this man from eternal darkness. _'Only curious,'_ she told herself.

"So you saw my _chel_ when I was a child?" he asked. Nolan was confused, from birth he'd been told how a male recognized a female as a lifemate. He knew his arm was resting on a red tablecloth, Asta's gypsy skirt was bright with many colors. And since her mind had touched his he'd been riding a roller coaster of emotion. How could she, _znal_ that she was, not know _she_ was his lifemate.

"Yes," she pushed down an emotion she refused to name, but held the unmistakable tinge of disappointment, "everyone's _chel _is unique and I never forget them." She took a small notebook and pen out of her pocket and began to draw. "See," she showed her drawing to him when she was done, "that's how I see your _chel_." She took the pen and drew again. "And that is how your lifemate's would have to look to match yours. It's how I see it, anyway."

"What about yours?" his voice took on a note of command. "Show me what yours looks like." He looked again at the pictures, maybe she was drawing it wrong, maybe he could make it fit. He flipped through the pages and saw other pictures she'd drawn and thought he might be right, Asta was not a very good artist.

She set the pen down, smiled and shook her head at him. "I have no idea what mine looks like," she told him. "Just because I'm _znal_ doesn't mean I'm immune to the realities of our species. It is a male's task to find, claim and bond with his lifemate. A Carpathian female can't interfere that, not even those who are _znal_."

__

'She could not recognize her lifemate any more than any other Carpathian female?' He'd thought…all of them had assumed, that she could. Hope surged through him.

Gregori had made Nolan's obligations to his race clear. Nolan knew it would be wrong to back down from them. If Asta was unable to find her lifemate for herself, then it was the responsibility of a worthy male to assist her. Nolan knew himself to be an exemplary Carpathian male, one who knew his duties and did them honorably, well, and without complaint.

Picking up the pen and notebook, he asked, "Are males ever _znal_?" He turned to a blank page and began drawing. "Because I am sure I know exactly what your _chel_ looks like."

Asta didn't know why he was saying these things, it would be impossible for him to be _znal, _it was equally impossible for him to know anything about her _chel_. He'd never even heard the word before she'd said it.

He took his time with his drawing looking back and forth between her and the paper. Even turning to other pages and starting over twice. When he was finished he handed it to her, "What do you think?" he said.

"I already showed that to you, it is the _chel_ of your lifemate," her finger traced the outline of the drawing.

"It is?" Nolan glanced at the drawing, "I think you are right, it is." he tried to sound surprised. At first she just stared at it, playing his words over again in her head. He saw by the look on her face, when she finally understood his meaning. _'_

Satisfaction, or accomplishment?' he asked himself which he was feeling. Looking at her he knew it was more than either of them. _'Triumph,'_ he decided.She was his and now she knew it.

That brought her head up, she pushed away from the table and stood, "It is not '_satisfaction_, or _accomplishment_'", she bit out, "it is you being full of yourself. And you have nothing to be _triumphant_ about because you are wrong!"

Asta hadn't felt threatened in hundreds of years. What Nolan was implying shocked and scared her. Her whole life was built around not having a lifemate, she hadn't chosen that life but she knew it, had succeeded at it. If he was right, then she was no longer who she thought herself to be. She didn't want to hear any of this, she had to make him stop. Standing in front of him her eyes blazing into his she leaned in close, her hand pushing on his chest to keep him at eye level, "I have nev…," she began.

"Your eyes are purple,' the words came of their own volition. He'd never seen their like. Nolan was disappointed in the boy he had been, how could he have overlooked them for a second.

He knew she'd been angry when he implied they were lifemates and she'd pushed him back into his chair. But if she was angry then, what he'd just said enraged her.

"Blue. My eyes are blue," she stated in no uncertain terms. "I have blonde hair and blue eyes."

He looked at the scarf wrapped around her hair, whether she had worn on purpose or not, it was the same color as her eyes. It was a dark purple to be sure, almost black, but there was no hint of blue in it. Nolan thought it was a perfect color for her eyes.

"Your hair is silvery-white and your eyes are purple," he had no idea why he was deliberately taunting her, but he couldn't seem to stop. He reached out and lifted a handful of the silken tresses, letting them flow over his hand as he let it fall.

"Nolan," Asta voice was soft but intense. "I am _almost _five foot tall, my hair does look 'silvery-white' as you say, in certain light. I've lived over two thousand years and until I actually speak to someone it's assumed I am a teenager. Unless I use my powers, I don't overawe even a child. Carpathian females are tall and elegant with beautiful blue-black hair like yours. They intimidate with just a glance. No one would ever mistake one for a child. For the most part, my appearance is anything but Carpathian, and I accept it.

"But I do _not_ accept purple eyes. I have blue eyes. Dark blue Carpathian eyes," she glared at him, daring him to contradict her.

He took hold of her arm and pulled her toward him until her legs were touching his, he tugged again with one hand and lifted her with his other until she was sitting on his lap. "Shhh," he said, when she struggled to get up. They stayed still for a time learning the feel of each other's bodies. "You know," he said, his voice husky, "I have been sorting out my emotions this night. I haven't had to deal with them for a very long time and I fear their restoration had may have caused me to lose some of my intelligence. I didn't mean to frighten or anger you." He kept his arms locked around her waist, "Sitting here with you like this I feel contentment. Let us both enjoy it.

"Did you know," he positioned her so her head could rest on his shoulder, "sometimes at the darkest part of night, when thunder fills the air and rain is pounding the earth, that every once in a great while, if you are very lucky you can see silver-white lightening slice through a midnight purple sky. It is not what one expects to see, but it is very beautiful and awe inspiring. I haven't seen it for many, many years, but I remember it. I never would have thought that in both a stormy night and a petite female I would see beauty almost too much bear and power that I can only be in awe of."

Asta felt the contentment Nolan promised her, steal over her. She was surrounded by him, could feel his arms cradle her close and his words rumble in his chest he as spoke them. She relaxed fully against him and his arms tightened around her. Her face nuzzled the side of his neck and she breathed in his scent, "Are you really my lifemate?"

"Do you want me to be?" Nolan didn't dare to breathe while he waited for her answer. He'd meant what he'd said to Gregori, he would not force a bonding. Asta had been on her own for a very long time, maybe she no longer needed her lifemate the way he needed her. As long as he could be assured of her safety he would greet the dawn. But he had to have her answer soon, he didn't know how firm his resolve would be if he stayed much longer in her company.


	7. Chapter 7

"You know neither of us has any choice in this," she said, "if color and emotions have been restored to you because you found me, we are lifemates." Asta had shielded her mind from Nolan since he'd shown her his drawing of her _chel_, and she hadn't tried to scan his. She didn't understand what she was feeling. She wanted a lifemate. She'd left her home and lived nothing more than a half-life for five hundred years because her lifemate _hadn't_ found her.

Asta knew among Carpathians that for a time she'd been considered something of a tragic heroine. The beautiful but unwanted female who fled her home and died so horribly. She knew this was a fairy tale ending to her story, but the fantasy of a lifemate was very different from reality. Everything about him was so overpowering, so very male. From the light dusting of hair on the back of his hands to the latent strength in his arms. And especially the suppressed passion he'd been projecting at her since he entered the tent. It was all too much. He was too much.

Nolan could tell she wasn't going to give him an honest answer right now. He was trying to listen to her words. But the sound of her beating heart and the flow of her blood through her veins as she sat on his lap wouldn't let him. The feel of her body against his caused both his hands and his thoughts to wander. And the fragrance that was uniquely hers, flooded his mind making it impossible for him to concentrate on talk at all.

His mind was filled with sensual images of dominating her, worshipping her, coming alive in her arms. He was Carpathian. It was his right, even his duty to complete the bonding with her. To claim her so he would never have to be without her again, so no other could ever take her from him. The ritual words he need only speak, to bind her to him forever danced in head. The words that would forever remove the danger of him embracing the darkness and becoming vampire, demanded to be spoken. But he would not have her until her need matched his. He brought his desire to claim both her body and her soul under control. He knew she was aware of his struggle to give her the space she needed. But his body's reaction was beyond his ability to tamp down, he didn't even try. He was hard and aching with his desire for her and he wanted her to know it.

He had to take her somewhere quiet, where they could enjoy the hours 'til dawn alone. "Come," he said, starting to stand, letting her find her feet before he moved away, "let us leave here." He looked at the shabby interior of tent expecting to find it unappealing and outlandish. Instead, he was surprised to realize that from now on he would always have an affinity for tawdry red satin and cheap, imitation gypsy knick knacks. That they, and the smells and sights of a carnival would forever be a reminder of this meeting with Asta.

"Asta," he said looking back at her, "you know real gypsies, they have lived among our people for ages, how could you have tolerated this?"

She laughed and grabbed his hand, "Since you put me out of business for tonight, my would-be lifemate," she deliberately tried out word on her tongue. "I think I will demand you take me on date." They joined the throng making their way across the grounds. The crowds, if anything, had become larger and it was impossible to walk without brushing against people going in one direction or the other. Asta noticed that it happened to her exactly once. After that the people around them miraculously decided to step politely around them or wait for them to pass before they went on their way.

She had no specific destination in mind. Asta doubted Nolan had ever been to a Halloween carnival or any modern-day carnival at all, so all of this would be new to him. As she walked beside him, his arm rested on her shoulder keeping her close. She wanted to know for sure, "Have you ever been to a carnival like this before?" she asked

"No one has ever been to a carnival like this before," Nolan answered her, but was he was distracted. There were packs of young men everywhere, all of them noticed Asta. Their thoughts about her were explicit, but their intentions benign for the most part; the majority of them no more than wishful thinking, "It is truly, unmatched in its splendor."

There was one human, though, who had been following them since they left the tent. He was older than most of the people there and he was too comfortable in the lab coat he wore for it to be merely a costume. He stayed behind them but always kept them in sight, trying to work up the courage to get closer. His mind was different somehow than the other humans and it was full of filth, a slimy sewer he was directing at Asta. Nolan pulled her closer.

A loud bell rang to their left and they saw a small knot of people applauding. "Oh, look Nolan, he won that huge gorilla for his girlfriend." Her eyes were sparkling with excitement for the young woman who held her boyfriend's trophy proudly in her arms.

The gorilla was at least two feet tall with a silly grin sewn to its face and a large yellow banana in it's hand. Nolan looked at the smiling couple and then back to Asta's eager face.

He didn't really want to know, but asked, "How did he win it?" He felt as though the words were being forced out of him.

"See the sledgehammer that man is holding," she pointed to the carnie in charge of the game, "you swing it through the air and hit the thing at the bottom. If you hit it hard enough it makes the bell at the top ring and you win something." Her voice betrayed her admiration for the young man, "He probably had to do it three times in a row to win a prize that big."

Nolan noticed that females from every age group were either gazing at the gorilla with envy or pretending not to notice it at all, as though they knew they had no chance to be given such a wondrous gift. Asta was definitely in the "gazing with envy" group. She turned that gaze on him.

"Asta, no," he said pleadingly.

"I didn't ask you to," but her head was tilted up at him with eyes full of hope.

He sighed, unbuttoned his cuffs and started to roll up his sleeves. "Nolan you don't have to do this," she immediately changed her mind, "you had enough strength to ring that bell when you were a toddler. It would almost be cheating for you to do it."

"I agree, it _will_ be cheating," he said. "But if you want me to win for you a stuffed jungle creature, I can do no other." Nolan cringed to hear himself say what he'd heard Jacques say to Shea so many times before.

He held her arm as they made their way to the booth, "Just stand where I can see you." He looked so pained it was hard for Asta not to laugh.

Ten minutes later the small crowd was again clapping as another young woman proudly displayed the spoils of her man's triumph over a bell with a hammer. This time it was a furry, black wolf that was the envy of all.

Nolan felt like a conquering hero the third time the bell rang and Asta clapped her hands and cheered his name. He'd stood behind her as she made her selection from the display. He said nothing as she looked the animals over, but could tell she was tempted by the large yellow duck. He could not believe how relieved he was she hadn't picked the duck.

"Thank you," she said as they strolled away from the game. Her face, nuzzled deep in the fur of her wolf, muffled the words. Her was hand buried in its pelt as she gently petted the animal, "His hair is so soft."

__

'Mine is softer,' he hadn't meant to send her the thought, but watching her fuss over the inanimate canine, he was tempted to shift into his own wolf form. He wanted her hands running through _his_ hair, her mouth on _his_ body.

His words brought her up short. She _had_ been thinking of Nolan as her hands moved over the wolf. She hadn't seen him in that form, but she'd picked the large black animal because it reminded her of him. _'I believe you,'_ she touched his mind with not just the words, but let him feel what she felt as she touched the wolf and she imagined it was him her fingers caressed.

Knowing her feelings of desire for him were growing sent a tremor of longing through him. The beast within demanded he take advantage of the moment. It was an impossibility. There were too many people here. And all of them far too close. Nolan was becoming more edgy and uncomfortable. It was intolerable to be unable to act on any of his instincts.

He wasn't sure he could keep her safe in these surroundings. He was still tracking the human who was following Asta. Nolan felt the perverse desire and inexplicable hatred he was directing toward her. He knew the predator in him would take over if the man became anymore of a threat to her. He could have easily made the human lose sight of them or compel him to leave. But Nolan was a hunter and he wanted his quarry to get closer so he could find out what his intentions were. The stalker's emotions were easily read, but his thoughts were too scrambled for Nolan to decipher. If Asta wasn't with him, he would have simply gotten the man alone and slowly crushed his throat until he told him what he wanted to know. His fingers flexed at the thought.

Nolan was being pulled in too many different directions. The necessity to either eliminate the human threat or protect her from it, warred with his need to claim her with his body and his blood. The animal instincts that were at the core of his being kept the two thoughts churning in his mind. _Ensure her safety_. _Mate with her_. He could do neither here. He felt the beast slowly take command.

Nolan's body tensed under Asta's hand, she saw his eyes go red. She laid her hand on his arm, scanned for the threat he perceived, she felt nothing. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, instinctively moving closer to the shelter of his body.

He felt her brush against him, his hands automatically reached out and spanned her waist. He looked down and his heartbeat sped up. Asta's top gaped away from her breasts, the white lace bra she wore hinting at the pale pink treasures it hid. He made a strange noise in his throat, she quickly looked up. His eyes never left the unintentional display, "We need to leave," he choked out.


	8. Chapter 8

They left the carnival manager's trailer minutes after entering it. They'd only gone there to tell him Asta was leaving his employment. He was so used to the itinerant life-style of his employees it wasn't necessary to use the slightest compulsion for him to happily agree to her quitting. Of course, Nolan glaring at him from over her shoulder probably contributed to his hasty assent and it was solely responsible for his eagerness to hand over the rest of the wages due her.

Though the man was no threat, Nolan softly spoke to him before they left, leaving his memory of Asta, that of an average height woman in her late twenties with reddish blonde hair. He hoped differing descriptions of her would slow down the pursuit of anyone following her. He had to assume the vampire hunters were continuing their search for her. Even if none of them suspected she was Carpathian, they would still want revenge for the articles she wrote and the collaborators she caused to be jailed and executed.

It was nearly two o'clock in the morning as they slowly made their way to the exit. Nolan called Asta's co-workers to him as he saw them and implanted in their memories the same idea of Asta's appearance as the manager now had. "Why didn't you travel farther away from Texas after the furor you caused there?"

"I thought traveling like this was an excellent way to hide from those thugs, she told him, "I was also trying to elude a certain male fan of Mary Sue Jenkins," He had her tucked securely under his shoulder as they walked. "The emails he sent left me with the impression he wanted to meet me and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."

"I only asked for your autograph on one of your books. There was nothing to make you suspicious in that," he'd been very careful with the wording of each of his messages to her and was slightly offended she'd seen through them so easily.

"It was the offer to travel to any city I happened to be in, so you could get it, that made me suspicious" she laughed at the memory of his arrogant replies. She'd known whoever the supposed fan was, he was Carpathian. She'd known by answering she was risking exposure and should ignore him. But she couldn't bring herself to break the contact, instead, she had pretended he was just a common if overeager fan.

"I found you in spite of your efforts to hide from me," Asta knew she was in trouble, when his obvious complacency only made her smile. "There was no need for you to put yourself in danger by traveling with this carnival."

"Actually, I chose this because it gave me the chance to mingle with humans and possibly make contact with females who have Carpathian _chel_." she told him. "I was very lucky to find those twins, I've gone for as long as a year between finding one since I first discovered a human woman who was destined for a Carpathian male." Her face turned serious, "It's so sad when I find women whose lifemates have already turned. There is so little I can do for them."

They stopped walking when they reached a wooded area outside the carnival, "When you discovered that first woman with _chel, _why did you not just find a way to contact her lifemate so her could claim her?"

She laughed at him, " You males would like that, wouldn't you? No, my gift is to let females fated to be a Carpathian lifemate know the strengths and limitations the shapes of their _chels_ reveal to me. To help her find a way for them to become a united soul without her losing herself to his more dominant personality." This was the first time she'd ever spoken about her gift. She'd only become aware of it shortly before she left her home with her parents. Since then, living among only humans, there had been no one to share the experience with.

Struggling to the find the right words to explain the things she did instinctively, she said, "For a human female it is more complex, I try to open her mind to a reality she has not ever imagined. When I speak with her, my goal is to prepare her for her lifemate's character. I try to reassure her that his soul does complement hers, so if he does find her, she just might not go running in the other direction." She shook her head at him, "That is the calling of those who are _znal_. It is not my task to find the female wrap her up with a bow and hand her over to her mate."

"It would be much easier if you let the male know," Nolan made sure no one was around and began to shift into his wolf form.

"Since when has the Carpathian way ever been the easy way?" she asked. "And besides he _has_ to be the one to find her. That truth is as much a part of us as our need for blood." A large black wolf sat at her feet his head tilted expectantly, waiting for her to shift, "Nolan, just how do you plan on carrying Pericol for me?"

Nolan reversed the shift and took the stuffed animal from her, "Menace? Somehow that name did not come to my mind when you picked him."

Asta grabbed Pericol away from him, holding him protectively in her arms, "I picked him because he reminds me of you."

A look of stunned horror flashed across his face before he could control it.

She held the wolf out in front of her. "Well, maybe not the tongue hanging from his mouth," she admitted, "or the floppy ears," she laughed up at him, "but it was closer than the duck."

Nolan took the shape of a hawk, after she had done the same, he flew low, picked her prize up in his claws and they launched into the night sky. _'Do you need to feed before we rest?' _he wanted them to be far from any human population while they slept, if she required nourishment it would be best to find it now.

__

'I fed well when I rose this evening,' she assured him. Flying slightly below and behind Nolan, they soared over tree tops and lakes. Asta delighted in the freedom that always came over her as she wheeled powerfully through the atmosphere. _'Are we going to the caves to the north?' _Asta could tell that was their destination, but she enjoyed the intimacy of having his mind touch hers, and so asked the question.

It had been so long since she'd been able fully enjoy what she was born to be. She'd become accustomed to existing in a human world, living and acting as a human. Many times, she had gone months where her only concession to her Carpathian nature was to sleep in the afternoons. For years now she rarely fed on fresh blood, instead she arranged for discrete deliveries of the substance after she settled in a new area. She savored this night, this opportunity to fly and communicate with Nolan as a Carpathian.

He felt her delight with their mental bond and so answered her with more detail than was necessary. _'I have found one with a hot spring, lined with crystals, and a small waterfall. I even discovered some coins I believe an unfortunate Spanish Conquistador tried to hide. And the earth there is very rich for this land,' _he began his descent taking pleasure in knowing she would follow.

As they got closer to the entrance, they shifted into bats to maneuver through small openings to reach their resting place. _'This will do very nicely,'_ she sent the thought as they shifted back into their human forms. Looking around the beautiful grotto he'd brought her to, she said, "You know, even though our people have always appreciated caves for the shelter they provide, I have always loved exploring them " she walked along the walls lightly touching the crystals and listening to the sound of the falling water, "Learning about the animals and people who have been there before me and even the changes to the earth."

She turned to face Nolan, who was carefully balancing Pericol on a rock, to keep him safely off the damp floor. His black shirt and pants were gone and in their place he was now wearing worn, faded blue jeans and a tee-shirt. Her eyes took in his trim waist and broad, muscular chest. He moved with grace and beauty, but the darkness he lived with was just as evident. The violence and fierceness that made him the man he was, always there, just below the surface. He was powerfully built and she was attracted to him like no other. Her gaze lingered as she appreciated his every line and definition. As her eyes traced down his legs she let out a soft sound of surprise and shock.

He heard her and thought she was reacting to his change of attire. "It is much more comfortable," he said in his defense.

It wasn't his clothing that held her still, or made her heart speed up. "You're barefoot," her voice was an accusation. She took a step back from him, unable to breathe. For some reason, the sight of his naked feet made her suddenly aware of how alone they were, how intimate their surroundings. How very _male_ he was. A blush stole over her. She couldn't hide her reaction to the thoughts his naked skin brought to her mind. They were there for him to read, graphic and vivid in their detail. Nolan saw them, each one. Standing more than an arm's length away from her, he felt her desire as though she were touching him.

Her mouth watered to taste his, she clasped her hands against the need to caress him. She stared at him appalled, as if to blame him for her body's reaction. Everything she was thinking and feeling was there on her face and in her mind for him to know. Tension filled the air between them. Nolan narrowed his gaze as the tip of her tongue wet her full lips. He was fascinated at how her subtly shifting body told him of her excitement. He brought his hungry gaze to her breasts causing her to gasp as her nipples hardened. He looked lower and she whimpered as her body made itself ready for him. She could feel her arousal. He could smell it.

His breath shortened and his skin pulled tight in response to her unconscious provocation. The space between them was abruptly and totally unacceptable His eyes were hooded. He fell back into a role he knew well; he would be hunter and she, his prey.

Nolan accepted what he was, a male Carpathian. That, at times he was more animal than man, at the mercy of his instincts. He breathed her in deep inside him; she was female to his male. They were lifemates. He watched her, she didn't move, she hardly dared to breathe but still everything about her beckoned to him, cried out of her body's need of him. His, demanded he answer. He would not take her choice from her, though, she had to come to him.

Both her body and soul had been his before her birth, there was none other for her, but him. Without her, he faced either eternal evil or death. But the gift of her heart and mind had to be freely given. And he wanted it all. Asta would give to him all that she was and once she did he would never release it. The beast was goading him, prodding him to take. He reached deep inside and forced it down; leashed it. Asta would choose. He would accept nothing less.

Leaning back against a large rock he folded his arms, stopping himself from reaching for her. Their eyes met, he looked down at her sandals. "Take them off," he used no compulsion, no tenderness or seduction, he refused to. Only his need of her was in his voice.

Total awareness of him filled her; confusion made her want to run. She was enticed by him; she was afraid of him. She wanted him far away; she would pull down mountains to get to him.

She loosened her shoes and kicked them to the side.

Satisfaction shot him as she stood there; her back to the waterfall, her feet in the dirt on the floor. He saw her watching him carefully, not speaking; her thoughts only of him. There was an undeniable vulnerability about her as hair flowed loose and wild. Her breath and heartbeat in rhythm with his.

No emotion showed on his face. Everything about him was hard and unyielding. The blue fire that was his eyes never left her. He pulled his shirt off over his head and flung it away. He waited. There was no mistaking what he wanted of her.

She opened her mouth to speak. "No, Asta," his voice rasping against her. A blush again stained her fair skin. She closed her eyes and took the white silk of her shirt in her hands and bared herself to him. She tossed the blouse to the side where it landed next to his. She didn't know where to look or what to do. She held her arms stiffly at her sides. She couldn't look at him knowing he was staring at her, judging her, seeing her stand there with no defenses, just her bra covering her.

She was beautiful. So perfectly proportioned. The sight of her was almost too much for him, the scent of her pleaded with him to take her. Nolan ached to hold, to kiss her. _Meu Zeu,_ he wanted to know her taste. _'Not yet,' _he told himself. "Look at me, Asta," he told her. Unfolding his arms he showed her his own bare chest, "Let me see you." She glared at him. He didn't care, he barely even noticed. Her hands moved to remove the lace.

He hadn't felt anything for so long let alone this riotous passion. For centuries he'd had nothing but honor and the memory of affection to guide his actions. He hadn't yearned for or craved anything for nine hundred years. But even then he'd never felt temptation like this, it was unlike anything that had come before. This, he could never walk away from. Blood pounded through him, he could hear it loud in his ears, feel it surge through his veins. His teeth hurt as he fought to keep his fangs from erupting, his body was drawn up tight. He was alive with a pleasure that bordered on pain.

He watched as her hands moved to the front of the lacy material that kept her breasts from his view. Her every movement fed the beast inside him. She looked up, her attention riveted on his fierce expression. She pulled it free, dangling it from her fingers. He nodded to the small pile of clothes. As she flung the thing on top, his eyes devoured the sight of her gently swaying breasts.

"Do you know what you commit to here?" his hands shook with the need to hold her. But before he would allow himself to even touch her, he had to hear her speak the words.

She nodded her head in assent.

"I will _never_ let you go," his tone was harsh, "I would not be able to."

She was weak with desire, his words and actions turning her into someone she'd never been before. Her only thoughts were of the feelings building inside her and the passion etched on his face. She'd long ago given up all hope of having her lifemate, of anyone ever making her feel this way. He could not want her more than she wanted him. Her eyes were hot; a purple flame. She was damp with hunger for him. "That is how it is with lifemates, I understand," she couldn't speak above a whisper.

"And do you acknowledge _me_ as your lifemate?" he asked it softly, but the demand for an answer was there, none the less.

"There is nothing you are asking of me that I do not want to give. Search my mind, you will know it is truth."

He pushed away from the rock, uncrossed his arms and held them out to her, "When you come to me, lifemate, know you are committing yourself into my keeping for all time, and know also, I will cherish and protect you always."

She held her head proudly, her incredible white-blonde hair falling down over her as she went willing into his arms. When she reached him he pulled her into a close embrace. "My skirt is gone," she whispered.

"So are my jeans," he said just as softly.

Her face was so beautiful to him, her body so warm and soft in his arms. It humbled him that she would gift him with herself. That she would give her soul into his keeping so the light in hers would hold the darkness in him forever at bay. She gave him color, emotion. Asta gave him life.

He knew she had been alone for centuries, that a female was not cursed with losing her emotions. It was not possible that such an exquisite and loving female would not have drawn the attention of males. She had to have cared for them, did she still? He knew what the truth must be, but said anyway, 'You have loved before,' It was a statement; it was a question. The answer did not matter; he had to know.

Her head barely reached his shoulder, her hands tentatively explored his shoulders and back. He felt each touch, each hesitant caress that branded him forever hers. 'I knew I would never find my lifemate, Nolan, and in my lifetime many handsome males, both Carpathian and human have courted me,' she replied evasively. The tension left his body, her words did not matter. He read the truth in her mind.

The arm that held her to him tightened, pulling her even closer. His other traveled slowly down her side to her hip, his lips found her neck, 'I, too, have never experienced the ultimate intimacy of another's body.' He felt her body stiffen in disbelief. The hand on her hip moved to her lower back not letting her step away, forcing her into intimate contact with his arousal. 'You need only look into my mind to find the truth for yourself.'

He carried her a few steps to a plush bed of sheepskin, laying down so she was sprawled over him. His voice was rough with desire, 'I can only assume that having met you at the council, no other female lived up to my childhood fantasies of feminine perfection.' He tangled his hand in her thick hair, pulling her close, bringing her lips to his to kiss.


	9. Chapter 9

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9

At the first touch of her lips a thousand years of restraint was lost. The caged beast he had always kept under such tight control, howled and threw itself at the bars of his restraint. His mouth moved under hers and their tongues met in a fierce exploration. His hand cupped the back of her head holding her to him. _You are mine, Asta, you always have been. And this is where you are supposed to be,' _he told her_' in my arms, naked, needing me, open to my touch.' _Her hair was a canopy around them and he groaned at the feel of it brushing his arms and chest as his mouth continued to feed on hers.

The scent and warmth of her surrounded him, like the steam rising from the hot spring that heated the air around them, making his hands and lips slip over her damp skin. His lips traveled from her mouth to the pulse at her neck, hungry for the taste of her. His tongue caressed the throbbing vein with a sensuous lick, feeling it beat in time with the thick blood that thudded through him. At the promise of the sweet taste so close, his teeth sharpened. He pulled her up and over, holding her hard against his aching erection.

He pushed on her shoulders until she was braced on her arms over him. With open palms he caressed taut nipples on her perfect breasts. Sparks danced along her nerve endings sending sensations shooting through her to her deepest core. Asta felt boneless, pliant, she sobbed and melted into him wanting more. His hand gently closed around her, reveling in their weight against him. His head fell back, '_Good, oh God, this is so good.'_

His hands skimmed over her slender back down over her hips, he pushed himself against her loosing his breath when she closed her legs at the unfamiliar feel of him, unintentionally trapping him between thighs. The breath left his body in a rush. With a slow seductive rhythm he thrust against the silky wetness he'd called from her. _"Feel me, Asta. Feel what you do to me," _he moved deliberately, drawing a cry of longing from her.

She gave herself over to the wonder of him. The intensity of the pleasure he was building in her, taking her to the edge. Her mouth open on his chest, she sucked and kissed at him. Her sharpened teeth teased him with the promise of ecstasy as they ran over his pulse, the muscle over his heart bunching in anticipation. Her mouth hovered over his nipple, her tongue touching it, a question. _'Yes,' _he hissed and they both groaned as her mouth took him into her.

He feasted and caressed wherever his mouth and hands touched her. But, no matter what he did it wasn't enough. A red haze of lust filled his mind.

He lay back watching her. She appeared an offering to him. Her supple shape draped over him. His gaze narrowed and his mouth grew dry as she deliberately sat up. He saw all of her. Her hair decorating her small waist and full hips. Her legs on either side of him holding her open to his gaze. He watched his hand as it unerringly made its way to the hot, moist flesh at her center. His long, elegant fingers danced over the blonde curls, searching for and finding the source of her passion. Her eyes opened wide with surprise and longing, then closed as she silently begged for more.

He rolled over, never taking his hands from her, lying her next to him. His teeth and lips running back and forth over her, teasing her nipples until she cried out at their touch. His hand circled and caressed her. He sweetly tortured her with his touch. Fast, then slow. Light, then hard, her hips moved to the rhythm he set. She was losing all sense of self, all she knew was him, his touch, his desire. His blue eyes, framed by the dark black hair that fell over his face, never left hers. His lips and tongue played at her full breasts while he watched her every expression. She was so wet, his fingers slipped over her. She was so hot, she was burning him. His voice was deep as his lips moved on her soft flesh, "_Meu Zeu_, Asta, you are killing me."

His fingers played at her entrance, her hips ground against him, needing more than the gentle brush of his hand. He knew what she wanted, but he was entranced by the feel of her most intimate parts. As he suckled and soothed her breasts. His hand tormented her at her core. He found the hard evidence of her desire, rubbing it hard and then softly running his finger around it. Giving her his palm to push against and then withdrawing to pass his hand over all of her. Returning again and again to moist heat at her opening until tempted beyond his limits, he pushed his finger in and pulled hard and deep at the nipple in his mouth. He felt her muscles clench tight, her hands twisting in his dark hair. She screamed his name and her response flowed out of her drenching them both.

He rested on his elbow at her side leaning over her. Gently, he stroked the hyper-sensitive flesh with a hand that glistened with her pleasure. "More, Asta, that is not enough," he breathed "I am going to bathe in you 'til dawn."

Nolan held himself away from her as he rose over her. "Merge with me, Asta. Let me feel what you are feeling. Know what I feel." His eyes raked over her body and his mouth covered hers again

Asta heard the words that would bind them for eternity pounding through his head. '_You are my lifemate, I claim you as my lifemate'_ he spoke them in the old language. There was such beauty and passion in his words they brought tears to her eyes. Without thinking Asta pushed the hair covering her neck away, her only thought to give to him all that she was. She could feel his need of her, not just of his body but of his soul. Although, there wasn't a part of them that wasn't touching the other, they would both remain forever alone and incomplete until they shared the essence of each other's life and he bonded them fully with the words. Her hand reached down and gently guided him to her.

Merged with her, Nolan felt her embrace their fate. Her desire to give to him and to take from him the blood that would seal them together. Her body was moving restlessly against him, needy. '_Nolan, say the words. Take my blood and my body. Give to me yours. Make me whole.' _She shifted beneath him trying to take him deeper. _'Make me yours,' _her voice sang in his head.

His body had been on fire since he entered her tent at the carnival, when she'd come apart in his arms his mind had gone blank with need. Asta was in him, living his emotions, his need became hers. She wrapped her arms around him, lifted her head and claimed the pulse on his chest with her mouth. Her teeth bit into him and his hot, ancient blood filled her veins. A growl of pleasure came from him. Lightning bolts of pleasure crashed through him. He moved without conscious thought and surged deep.

Asta's mind exploded as she felt the pain and pleasure of his possession. His body and his blood changing her forever. Nolan felt her body clasp him tight, the joy filling her as he drove into her. Her lips and her heat ravishing his control. She drank deep, thrilling at the richness of his blood. He was in her mind, he could taste himself with her tongue. Feel his thick, length stretching her, pushing her pleasure higher. Asta pulled away and licked his wound closed. Her hands ran over his face and back, at her every touch passion coursed through his veins. The ritual words spilled out of him and into her. "I belong to you, I offer my life for you," each word tying them forever together, "You are bound to me for all eternity. You are always in my care."

Nolan," she moved with him, against him. Her legs wrapped around him, holding him close. She was edgy, anxious, wanting something more. There were no other words to express her thoughts, her neediness. '_Nolan!'_

His bared his teeth and bent his head to her neck. His lips settled over the pulse there, he licked once. Her pulse jumped as if at his command. His teeth were throbbing with the same burning desire he felt below. He pierced her skin and at the sweet, hot taste of her blood, he made a sound in his throat that was more animal than man. His hips jerked, he thrust faster, harder, taking Asta with him.

He was so deep inside her he was touching her womb, his teeth were buried in her neck drinking in her spirit, her life. They would never be apart. Her mind would always be open to his call. Her body would always crave his touch. He basked in the rightness of it, '_Lifemate.'_

At the hoarse sound of his voice claiming her, the steadily building pressure inside Asta shattered. The muscles surrounding Nolan quivered then contracted, squeezing him hard. He felt her liquid passion pour over him. Her nails dug into his back, she held him like she would never let him go. Their every movement taking them to a higher level, carrying them to the sun. He never wanted it to end. The words she cried out at her release echoed off the walls and in his ears, and in his mind, _'I love you!' _He slammed into her once more and lost himself in her.


	10. Chapter 10

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10

"I know we have to go back soon," They were walking past the security guard in large New York City office building. Asta had to meet with her editor to discuss the seventh and final book in the _Always_ series. She'd kept Fiona waiting weeks now for the first two chapters and her last message from the woman was full of dire warnings of missed deadlines and the release date having to be pushed back if she didn't turn in something in soon.

On their way to the bank of elevators, Nolan noticed an extremely thin woman scrolling through her cell phone options and watching them closely. "But other people's jobs are affected by whether or not I meet my commitments here," said Asta, the elevator doors swooshed open, they steeped in and she pressed the button for the 23rd floor. "This meeting won't take long, I promise. And once I take care of this, we can make plans to leave."

"Do you know that woman in the black dress we just passed?"

"We're in New York City, _all_ the women wear black dresses," Asta laughed, as they walked down a plush, carpeted hallway. "But, no, I've never seen her before. I only come here occasionally, though, and then only in the evening. Maybe she's just working late," she knocked on the editor's door.

"Wait for me here. I'll come and get you after I find out if she has a legitimate reason to be here," he waited until she went inside, then left and headed back to find the woman.

Nolan searched the spacious lobby with its brown marble tile that covered the floor and then continued up the walls. There was an abandoned desk that ran half-way along one wall for a receptionist during the day. And real plants sparingly set along the walls in an attempt to soften the feel of the room. Nolan heard someone talking to his right. The woman was still there but she wasn't alone anymore, two men had joined her. The three sat on a couch in the reception area. Nolan screened his presence from them and listened from a short distance away.

"Just look at the picture" she was whispering angrily as she held out her cell phone. "I'm telling you, Mary Sue Jenkins _is _Eileen Bennett. I just saw her come in for her meeting with Fiona Basso. I _knew_ I'd catch her if I hung around long enough," .

"If that bitch reporter is here," the man sitting next to her stood and looked around and saw they were alone except for the lone guard, "it won't be a problem to grab her here, we've got the van and the poison with us."

"It might not be as easy as you think, Mark," her face took on a smug look. "You'll never guess who she had with her." When Anne was sure she had their total attention, she told them, "A vampire. He had the same sort of look about him as the ones in the pictures you've shown me. And they were walking as though they were attached at the hip. I never trusted your precious Eileen, I think she's one of them, and that vampire is her _mate_." she said the last with a certain satisfaction.

Ever since Mark met Eileen he'd had the hots for her. He was the one responsible for giving her access to the information that brought them down.

Mark wondered how much of what she was telling them was the truth and how much was the result of jealousy. He knew Anne had set her sights on him in Houston. And when she saw his attention drifting away from her to the petite blonde, she'd taken an instant and permanent dislike to her.

He was still living with the humiliating sense of betrayal he'd felt that morning he'd driven past their warehouse and saw the police cars with their lights and sirens signaling the exposure of their secret organization. His car radio told the bare bones of the sensational story. How a local reporter infiltrated a group of psycho killers who lured innocent victims into their clutches, performed gruesome medical experiments on them, then brutally killed them when they were finished. Eileen's stories about them resulted in seven of their organization being sent to jail, sitting on death row.

It wasn't long before Eileen was publicly identified as the reporter who betrayed and disgraced him. She would pay for outing them to the police and the public. Then making them a laughing-stock when it was discovered they'd been trying to rid the world of vampires. He'd been fantasizing about the different ways he'd bring her to her knees, literally and otherwise, ever since.

But that didn't mean she was one of _them_. The thought turned his stomach.

Mark's reaction was all Anne could have hoped for. His face was red and he looked ready to kill. "If she is one of them now, it's because she was turned. I know a vampire when I see one and so do you, Jasper. She was human and she was on our side until she found out about the few humans we'd accidentally identified as vampire."

"Give it up, Mark," the other man's face showed his disgust with Mark's denial of the truth. "She was never _on our side_, she was looking for a story and you handed it to her on a silver platter. We don't know all the tricks they're capable of, especially the females. Maybe they can hide what they are more easily than the males," Jasper had been held accountable for the debacle in Houston. He remembered his last meeting with his _boss_, the terror that filled him as the consequences for his continued failures were listed. She would definitely pay for what she'd put him through. This was his chance to redeem himself and get revenge on the woman who'd caused him so much grief.

"I always wondered what happened to the hard drive with all the proof on the actual vampires we tracked and captured. I was hoping one of our people grabbed it before the cops got there." Jasper stood. "But if she was one of them all along and not just a reporter, she'd have as much reason as us to keep it from leaking to the press."

"Once we get the poison in her system we'll know whether Eileen is vampire or not," said Mark. "If she is, she'll regret the game she played with us. And I'll enjoy every moment of it before it's over." There was something in his tone and face that made even Anne feel just a little sorry for what Eileen was going to go through at Mark's hands.

"Let's go back to the van and see if we can spot them when they leave. Maybe we can find out where they're holding up and get started on that pay back," he looked at Anne. "Call that temporary agency you've been working for and tell them you're quitting. You won't be coming back here again, we need to get started on our real jobs."

Nolan wasn't surprised by anything he'd heard. What did surprise him was his reaction to it. He'd dispensed justice for centuries, destroying both vampires and the humans who served them. There had been so many it would impossible for him to name the number, but never had he been filled with such a desire to kill. He would get Asta to safety and then remove this threat from her, from his people, for good.

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"I still don't understand how you write your heroes so realistically. You can't be getting your inspiration from anyone you've ever met. Guys like that just don't exist in real…" the door to Fiona's office opened and in strolled Nolan. Fiona saw his black hair, blue eyes, and trim, muscular build, she felt the aura of danger he brought into the room with him. The Mount Olympus escapee wrapped his arm around Asta's shoulder, pulled her close to his side and politely waited for Fiona to finish her sentence "…life?"

The editor got up from behind her desk and came around to introduce herself to the man who must be Asta's new husband and the reason for the late chapters. She held out her hand, "I'm Fiona Bennett, Asta and I have just been discussing her latest book and your whirlwind courtship. I'm surprised you're such a fan of romance."

Fiona tried to picture this man sitting poolside, spending an afternoon flipping through the pages of a paranormal love story. She could see him in the swimsuit, no problem, she just couldn't make the book appear in his hands.

Nolan shook the hand of the tall brunette, "I'd say I'm more a fan of Asta's work than of the whole genre," he abjured. "She is very talented," he looked lovingly into Asta's eyes. _' We have to leave. They have found you.'_

She knew exactly who _they_ were. She sighed. The list of mistakes she'd made in Texas was too long to think about. Five hundred years she'd stayed below the radar of both humans and Carpathians and now both had tracked her down. She didn't regret writing the story, those people were a danger to everyone, the murders had to be stopped and Carpathians had to be protected from exposure. She'd been the only one around to do it.

When she heard about and seen the pictures of the men who'd gone missing over the last few years; all of them single in their twenties or thirties, all with no family. She noticed a Carpathian look about them, the dark hair, the height. She'd been curious to find out if the missing person cases were related. The police, once they eliminated the possibility of a sex-crime connection hadn't looked into it anymore.

The name Mark DeWitt had come across her desk as a connection between some of the victims, so she set herself up to meet him, after that it had been easy to earn his trust, and piece by piece discover exactly what they were doing. She didn't have any choice but to expose them. During the months long investigation there had never seemed to a good time to pull out and leave it to someone else to finish up. Besides that, she couldn't use any of her abilities around the fanatics, so getting that hard drive had been impossible until the police were in the warehouse with her and she could remove it without being detected.

"I agree," Fiona picked up her PDA, "Asta's made our publishing house tons of money. The higher ups are very fond of all their big money makers." She looked at Asta, "If you promise to get those chapters to me in three weeks, I can get us back on schedule."

"I'll get them to you on time," Asta was looking at the framed cover of her first book, hanging on the office wall. "You know, I'm going to miss writing the adventures of the Whitenight family. But their stories have all been told except for Neil," Asta's eyes went to Nolan, "and I know most of his story now."

Fiona crossed the room and hugged Asta, "You've been wonderful to work with, and you deserve time off to enjoy married life. Besides, why should you write fantasy when you'll obviously be living it?"

She watched them walk to the door. The tall, handsome man who, while not hovering, made it very clear the woman under his arm had both his total devotion and protection. And the beautiful woman whose whole being signaled to the world, this was her man and she was content with that.

They were almost out the door when Fiona called after them, "At least, I finally found out where you got your inspiration!" she laughed.


	11. Chapter 11

"What do you know of Mark, Jasper and Anne?" Nolan asked Asta as they walked purposefully to the elevators.

"Jasper is in charge, he's the one who chooses all their victims," Asta watched as Nolan pressed the button for the top floor, two stories above them. "Anne, I'm not really sure what she does besides hate me, she seemed more of a groupie that anything else. Mark is the one I used to get into the organization, he's a sociopath and true fanatic. He really believes he's serving a higher purpose," they took the stairs to the roof after they left the elevator.

"I remember him telling me about 'experiments' he participated in. You could see in his eyes how much he enjoyed the pain he inflicted on those poor people," they walked to the edge of the roof to look out over the side of the building. Although it was well past sunset, they had no difficulty picking out a white van parked near the entrance.

"How did you keep them from suspecting you of being Carpathian?" Nolan needed to find the best way to stop them. He had no compunction about killing them, but he'd rather cut off the head of the snake than chop off body parts that would easily be replaced.

"I never used any of my abilities around them," she explained. "I knew some of their people were able to sense it. I projected an image of being completely human whenever I was around them. And I never scanned their minds.

The van door opened, Mark got out and walked to the door of the office building, "Without scanning them, I didn't know what they were going to do. It wasn't until I heard them planning to kidnap another victim that I decided I couldn't wait any longer and went to the police. The timing wasn't what I wanted it to be, I knew Jasper was out of town and would get away, but Mark was supposed to be there."

"They're waiting for us," Nolan watched the movements of the man on the sidewalk below. He concentrated on them, listening for any conversation they might be having.

"We can't leave yet," it was Anne, her voice tense with excitement. "They're close, I bet they're watching us right now."

"Then we'll have to find a way to bring them out into the open," Jasper knew more about the reporter than Anne or Mark. Jasper had gone to Bertrand, the boss no one but he ever met with, and told Bertrand about the woman. He showed him her picture and described the effect of her voice on all of them.

Jasper had never seen Bertrand lose control before, but at the information about Eileen Bennett he'd gone ballistic. He ranted that he knew who she really was, that she wasn't human. He'd gone on and on about how he wanted her brought to him, that she owed him. He reminded Jasper that she knew about him and probably had ferreted out information about Bertrand, too. He left his minion with no doubts that if the blonde did anything to threaten him, anything at all; Bertrand would sacrifice him in a heartbeat. Jasper was somewhat surprised Bertrand felt the need to tell him that, Jasper had never thought any different, it's exactly what he expected to happen; what kept him awake night after night.

Jasper had no illusions about who or what his boss was. He did find it a little ironic, though, that he was killing people pretending to believe they were vampires, in order to impress and gain the trust of a real vampire. And gaining Bertrand's trust really meant catering to his whims. Jasper found that endeavor to be occasionally difficult and sometimes dangerous, but always interesting. Jasper didn't mind having to do it, not in the least, this was his path to power and dominance, and he was committed to seeing it through to the end.

Bertrand liked to watch while Mark used his talents on their victims. He seemed to feed off the terror their 'experiments' elicited as much as he did the blood he took from the poor fools at the end. Jasper was envious and fascinated by the way strength and power flowed into Bertrand along with the blood.

That was Jasper's goal. To have that kind of power was his fantasy and Bertrand promised it to him if he succeeded in Houston. After the arrests, it had become obvious he needed to do something to reingratiate himself, and so far he wasn't succeeding. The man he'd had following that carnival trying to find Asta, lost her the same night he said he found her. He hadn't been able to get anyone into the prison, either, to silence their cohorts in jail. Bertrand and he were both worried that before their executions their former allies would give up secrets neither wanted exposed. Over all, Bertrand was less than impressed with his recent track record.

But if he could capture Asta quickly, maybe he could save his skin, well, actually his blood.

"She was so upset when she read about what we did with the humans we captured, let's see what she does when it happens right in front of her," Jasper reached in a holster next to the driver's seat and called Mark over to the open van door.

"Mark, here!" Jasper tossed the gun to Mark. He saw a woman exiting the building, "Grab her. Don't let her get away," Mark's eyes lit up, he pulled the woman to him by the arm, threatening her with death if she didn't keep quiet. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she slumped against him in a faint. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her prone body in front of his, the muzzle of the weapon buried in her sleek brown hair.

Jasper held a rifle, loaded with serum designed to paralyze his targets and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Anne followed him, shrieking, "They're up there!" she pointed to the roof.

"Shut up!" his voice froze her. "Get out of my way." He tried to see the two in the light of the full moon, but it was full dark and he saw nothing.

"I know you can hear me, Asta," Jasper spoke conversationally, "I promised my boss I was going to bring someone in to entertain him tonight. You get to choose who it will be. You and your friend with you up there, or this innocent bystander." he gestured to the woman who was beginning to struggle in Mark's cruel embrace. When there was no reply, he said, "You have three seconds to…"

"Mark, you are _such _a loser," the voice coming from the tall, stylish brunette Mark was holding, sounded like it belonged to middle aged man with a two pack a day habit. Even her posture had taken on the characteristics of a short, pugnacious man spoiling for a fight. "You always have been. I told your mother so right before I had my last heart attack."

The gun was shaking in Mark's hand, he looked like he wanted to run away, "Da?"

"Do you like being used or are you just stupid? They just want you to do the stuff they don't have the stomach for themselves. They're gonna kick you to the curb as soon as they're done with you," the voice continued. The woman's (his father's?) head shook once more, as if in shame and disgust, "You are _such_ a loser," he repeated a last time.

Mark had completely let go of the woman, his eyes wild as he backed away from her. He held the gun with both hands, as if he were keeping a monster at bay.

"Nolan, they have Fiona," Asta kept her eyes on the tableau below. "Whenever she gets overwhelmed, any spirits hanging around sort of take over. I've got to save her."

"She has a lifemate somewhere, doesn't she," Nolan felt an even more of an obligation to ensure her safety.

On the sidewalk below them, Fiona turned her attention from Mark to Anne. The frizzy-haired woman's grandmother was berating Anne for her loose morals, her lack of husband and her emaciated body. Anne's stilettoed feet were carrying her to the safety of the van.

The table had turned between Fiona and her attackers. She was definitely the aggressor now. Two of her would-be abductors were on the run and the third had his attention split between the Whoopi Goldberg-esque psychic next to him and his quarry on the roof who continued to stay out of sight.

Jasper glanced at the woman when he heard his name being spoken in the gentle, kind tones of his uncle, "Jasper," he said, "come on, sport. It's not too late, you know, you don't have to do these things." The woman's eyes were filled with the same sadness he'd seen in Uncle Tony's over and over again throughout his childhood. "I believe in you. I know you're better than this. You're not alone, you've never been alone, give us a chance to help you, sport," he held out Fiona's hand as if to drowning victim.

Looking at Uncle Tony's hand Jasper thought what a relief it would be to just walk away from this craziness. No more scheming and plotting. No more worrying about who can be trusted and who has to be eliminated. No more Bertrand controlling his every thought, his every action.

But right on the heels of that thought, his pride rose up and demanded of him, and be what instead? A nothing? Just like everyone else in his family? The highlight of his week a family dinner with screaming kids running around and the television blaring a football game? Working sixty hours a week but barely getting by. Letting the world walk all over him?

He was so much more than any of his family. None of them understood the greatness he was capable of. They couldn't appreciate it, because it was beyond them. But it wasn't beyond him and that greatness was worth any sacrifice.

He brought up the rifle and pointed it at the woman's head. "Back off, Uncle Tony," he warned, "or you're going to die all over again."

"Aw, sport," he sighed regretfully when he saw the determination in his nephew's eye. "You won't get another chance, Jasper," The spirit left, and a terrified and confused Fiona was left facing the barrel of rifle held in the shaking hands of a madman.

Jasper saw that his victim was back. "Choose, Asta!" he yelled, not taking his eyes of Fiona.

The maddened screech of an owl came from overhead, Jasper didn't move the rifle but he smiled. He was an expert marksman. He would need every bit of his skill to pull this off, but he knew he could do it.

__

'Asta, no!' Nolan hadn't expected her to confront the man. They could make him drop the rifle from here.

Nolan took the form of the faster, larger hawk and swooped down after her. Just as Nolan reached her, Jasper brought the rifle around. Nolan sent a hasty push to Jasper's arm, hoping to deflect his aim. Jasper blindly pulled the trigger, trusting his instincts to hit his target. Nolan stretched out his wings, covering as much of Asta's body as he could.

The shot went just a little wide.

The poison dart hit him low on his hip and Nolan felt the injection moving through his system and take effect almost immediately. He was losing his hawk shape and he knew he had to shut down his heart and lungs to keep it from spreading through the rest of his body. _'Get yourself and the woman to safety. I will contact you when I get away from them,'_ his voice was calm and reassuring, letting her know he would be fine.

Asta watched in horror as Nolan's body took on its true form, more than ten feet above the ground. He fell hard and hit the sidewalk with a sickening thud. _'Nolan, I am more than able to get us all away from them. I will not leave you!'_

Fiona was screaming incoherently. The crazy man with the rifle was almost giggling with delight, Asta's naked husband lay as if dead at her feet, and she couldn't remember anything that happened after some nutjob threatened to kill her if she made a sound.

Asta made both herself and Fiona invisible as she landed in her human form. She immediately took over Fiona's mind and demanded silence and unquestioning obedience from her. She instructed Fiona to begin walking slowly away and to stop at the corner to wait for her.

Jasper was yelling at Mark to help him get Nolan into the van. Asta began to search their minds finding the paths to controlling each of them. She didn't like that Nolan was no longer communicating with her. She was just about to order the men to gently carry Nolan into the van when the unmistakable feel of an ancient and unnatural evil descended over all of them.

"Bertrand!" Jasper was bubbly with excitement. "I captured one of them for you. We were just about to bring him to the laboratory."

The vampire did not materialize, but spoke clearly in the minds of all present, _'Hurry up and get him away from here.'_ Then he spoke directly to Asta, as though, her screen was made of nothing more than tissue paper he easily ripped through, '_I_ _remember when you rebuffed my suit, Asta. You knew Vlad would never send a hunter with a lifemate away from our homeland, your rejection sentenced me to exile in this land. You are to blame for what I have become. I will enjoy making both you and your lifemate pay for your disregard of me.'_ The voice was raised in command, _'Get the blonde female, she is kneeling next to her lifemate.'_

Though Nolan appeared to have totally shut down his body, he reached out to Asta, _'Leave now. Bertrand is very powerful and I cannot protect you from him right now. I promise you, lifemate, I will come to you as soon as Bertrand can no longer hurt you.'_

__

'They will kill you, Nolan,' tears filled her eyes, her heart, her soul. _'I can't leave you with them. Please don't ask that of me.'_

Nolan brought himself out of his self-imposed sleep, he drew breath and his heart began to beat. The poison again moving through him. He let himself feel the pain of his injuries. He groaned deliberately, gaining the attention of his captors. At the same time he sent a compulsion to Asta, one too strong for her to ignore, demanding that she run. He had put himself in danger again. This time to give her this opportunity to escape so, she ran. For him, she ran away from him. Tears streamed down her face, but she ran with all the preternatural speed she was gifted with.

Fiona was waiting for her at the corner, still invisible to the cars passing by. A taxi was waiting for them, Asta practically carried the taller woman to the vehicle and they left.

Sitting the back seat of the cab Asta rocked back and forth, _'I left him with a vampire, he's going to die because I left him with a vampire.'_

As they traveled through the city, Fiona slowly lost the compulsion to be unaware of her surroundings. When she realized she was once again without any memory of what had just happened to her, a panicked look came over her face. But before she could give into her anxiety, something or someone in the front passenger's seat caught her attention. She gradually leaned forward, listening intently.

Asta was huddled in her seat, living her own world of pain, unaware of Fiona or where they were going. At some point during the ride, Fiona took Asta's hand, reminding her she wasn't alone.

"Okay, Tanya, against my better judgment, I believe you," Fiona sat back in car seat, relaxing for the first time in over an hour. "You know, you do that same thing with your voice that your daughter does to me every time she gets tired of arguing with me."

Fiona closed her eyes, sorting through all the things that happened to her since she left work, all the things Tanya told her, "I promise, Tanya, I won't freak out."


	12. Chapter 12

Nolan was thrown unceremoniously by his captors into the back of the van, they scrambled quickly in after him. Jasper got in the driver's seat and drove toward the rented warehouse where their lab was located. Bertrand was waiting for them, and Jasper knew better than to keep him waiting. They had all heard the undiluted rage in Bertrand's voice when he realized Asta escaped them.

Anne sat in the back of the cargo van next to the impossibly handsome but immobile creature lying before her. "Are we going to wake him up for awhile before you stake him?" she asked hopefully. She yanked the dart out of Nolan's hip, not noticing that the tip was bent and over half of the poison was still in it. She tossed it to the side running her hand over the puncture wound left by the injection. Fascinated by his alluring masculine form, she let her hand drift farther a field over the tempting skin.

Mark turned around in his seat and saw the avarice on Anne's face, "For God's sake, Anne, he's not even breathing. Put something over him and get up here."

"We're all scientists here, fighting for the greater good of mankind, right," she found a dirty drop cloth crumpled in a corner of the vehicle and threw it over the prone Nolan, "I've never seen a real vampire before, I just want to find out how they're different from us." she crawled to the front of the van. "It's weird, even though, I know the serum knocked out his psychic abilities and he looks dead, there's still something about him that makes me nervous."

Nolan was aware the moment the woman's attention was focused elsewhere. He turned his concentration inward to assess what damage the poison had caused. He was unable to move physically, but the partial dose of poison he received seemed to have left his psychic powers mostly unimpaired. He had heard of the damage it could do and knew himself to be very lucky.

He felt Asta trying to merge with him, but kept his mind closed to her. She would come after him herself and he would not let her endanger herself that way. He'd been in her mind often as they traveled here, he knew she had never killed. She would not be able to defeat a vampire of Bertrand's ability, she had no idea the things such a creature was capable of.

Entering his body, he searched out and destroyed as much of the bacteria as he could find. The constant mutations it created made him doubt he was successful in ridding his body of all the toxins, and he knew he would have to stop when they arrived at the laboratory. Bertrand was much more likely than Anne to sense his mind had not been impaired by the drug.

His work was meticulous and thorough, but the energy it took drained him to a critical level. He needed blood to regain his strength, but had no hope they would see to his needs. He remained in his body for the duration of the drive, destroying the bacteria, forcing it to one location over and over again, so he could wipe out as much of it as he could at one time. It was exhausting to hold himself in his body for that long while keeping the zealot's attention directed away from him. He did what he could, killing generation after generation of the mutations it spawned. He wouldn't know how successful he'd been until he was examined by a healer.

But he would be examined by a healer. He would escape, and be with Asta. They'd only been together a short time, but their need for each was so great one could not live without the other. Without him she would lose the will to live. He would live for her. He could do no other.

Though, there was little he could do to lengthen the drive, Nolan fluttered the brakes frequently. Even if it didn't slow them down very much, it was enjoyable to hear Jasper swearing in frustration at the second-rate rental they got stuck with.

Nolan saw blue and white flashing lights through the window of the van, then nothing, when Anne hastily pulled up the cloth to cover his face. For a moment he was grateful his muscles were paralyzed by the drug. She would have been unable to overlook his smile, as Jasper got pulled over for reckless driving because of his jerky driving and constantly blinking brake lights.

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Asta was a mess and Fiona didn't know what she should do to help her. She didn't even know exactly what she needed help with. The gaps in Fiona's memory, being held at gunpoint, the heart-to-heart with the long dead Mrs. Gregorski. All of it was beyond her experience. She was scared and confused. But it was Asta that was truly terrifying her.

Nothing before had ever seemed to move Asta deeply. She was always in control; composed and utterly unflappable. Not arrogant or superior, just more of an amused observer of the lives being acted out around her, than a participant in them. The only passion Fiona had ever seen from Asta had been in her writing. But now she was crying so hard she could barely walk from the cab to the front door of the house they had come to.

"Asta, sweetie," Fiona gently asked the distraught woman, "do you know who lives here? Do you have a key?" They stood on the small front porch of a colonial brick home that was set well back from the street.

It had been so long since Asta had actually let herself really care for someone. She had always surrounded herself with others, but kept herself separate from them. They would never understand or accept who she was, so while her affection for them was genuine, it was also muted because none of them knew who she truly was.

Until Nolan. No one more than she understood the concept of lifemates. She, alone among her people, could see the beauty of a united and complete soul. But until Nolan had shared his life with her, she hadn't understood anything. She didn't just love him, she was him. He was her. Together they were everything, and separate there was nothing. No laughter, no joy, not even sadness. Just nothing.

She'd left him because she'd been given no other choice, but she would not accept a minute's worth of suffering for him. He saw himself as nothing more than a dark predator, an emotionless killing machine with nothing but death to offer. He was so much more than that, he was so strong and so good. Whatever had been asked of him, he'd given. Always, and without thought to the toll it took on him. Never once had he ever considered giving in to the darker side of his nature. Just the knowledge it was wrong had been enough for him to turn away from the temptation. He had no family left, he himself had been the one to destroy his last remaining relative. There was no close friend from his fledgling days to support him as his life grew grayer and more barren. No one thought to care for him. He'd been so alone.

She would not let him be alone again.

Asta looked blankly at the door in front of her, then up at Fiona, "This is my home, I don't need a key," the door swung open and they walked into a small but pristine home that had been built in the 1700's. All the furnishings seemed to be hand crafted and the light from the candles in their pewter wall sconces reflected off dark red and ivory walls.

"Fiona you have to go home now. You can't be involved in this anymore than you already are. Don't worry about the unpleasant things you saw, I will make sure you don't remember any of it. I would take you home myself, but I have to find a way to get Nolan away from Bertrand," her voice broke. "He'll kill him. I left Nolan with a vampire who will kill him."

A vampire wanted to torture and kill Asta's husband, no, not her husband, her _lifemate_. Okay, Fiona had read enough paranormal stories to grasp that, sort of. Asta was Carpathian, not meaning she was born in the mountain range there, but that she wasn't quite human. She could make herself into a bird and fly, control people and make them do whatever she said. She was hundreds of years old, and helped Carpathians to fall in love and life happily ever after. Of course she did.

Tanya had told her vampires were evil and hated Carpathians who were good, even though vampires used to be Carpathian. And some, like Bertrand, found humans willing to help him capture Carpathians. They had a poison they injected into the Carpathians because that made it easier to torture and kill them. _And _somebody or something was organizing the vampires for an all out attack on all Carpathians everywhere.

If she just thought of it all as a plot for story, she was all right. It was only when she remembered it was all true, she forgot to breathe. She'd just concentrate on one thing at a time then. There was no doubt that Nolan, Carpathian or not, needed to be rescued. And she knew without asking that calling the police was definitely not an option.

"Asta, you have to stop," they were on the sofa in her sitting room. Fiona curled up in a corner holding a pillow in her arms, "I don't know what to do here, but there must be something. And I'm not going anywhere. Your mother convinced me that I was supposed to be here. She said to tell you that I needed to be here."

"My mother spoke to you? But the spirits never talk to you, they just take over and talk to whomever they've been haunting, through you. I wasn't even sure if you were aware it."

"Yes, well, I don't think you would have listened to anything your mother had to say during that cab ride, you were pretty out of it. Tanya was the first one who actually spoke _to_ me, and usually I don't remember being taken over, but sometimes I have dreams where it all comes back."

"Fiona, Nolan has closed his mind to me, I don't know where he is. I know enough about the people in the organization to be able to eventually track them down, but this New York City, they could be anywhere and it would take too long. Bertrand will lose interest in torturing and taunting Nolan very quickly. And then nothing will stop him from killing him."

"All right, if we can't get Nolan away from Bertrand, is there anything we can do to get Bertrand to leave Nolan?"

"Bertrand is a master vampire, nothing will keep him from tormenting Nolan except a threat to his own life."

"So what would threaten his life."

"Nothing I could do to him from a distance. I think only knowing a hunter was after him would make him hide from them."

"Okay, a hunter. You mean like a "wanted dead or alive" vampire bounty hunter? How do we find them," Fiona pulled out her cell, "can we call one?"

Asta almost smiled, "Carpathians protect their privacy very closely, I doubt any of them have their phone numbers listed. I haven't talked with any hunters for hundreds of years. And I don't have blood bond with any of them anyway. The only way to reach them is mentally, but it would have to be on a common path. So any call I sent out Bertrand will intercept."

"So there's no way to get word to any of these Carpathian hunters that you and your husband need their help? Your mother told me you were a matchmaker for your people, that you sometimes meet with the women and help them. Do you have a blood bond with any of them?"

"No. I sense Carpathian _chel,_ and unmated females with it are naturally drawn to me. I've learned to enhance that and can create a general compulsion to any female with _chel _to come to me. ButI have never attempted to compel anyone from a great distance, only a few miles at most."

"That's what you have to do then."

"If I do this, both the female and her lifemate will know she is under a compulsion. He will accompany her and will be very angry. No hunter will accept his lifemate being controlled by another. Any who come will be ready to do battle."

Asta felt the light touch of Nolan in her mind. He was so weak, even this simple task was almost too much for him. She felt his love and his frustration. Pain shot through her. Her captors sliced open the skin on her legs, her chest, her stomach making her bleed. No, not her, but Nolan. They wanted him hungry and in pain so they could deny him nourishment. As soon as she felt his torment, it was gone. Nolan broke the connection between them. She hadn't been expecting it and his mind was closed to her again. He wanted her to know he lived, but would not let her find him.

"I cannot let this go on. I will make them come."

Electricity seemed to build around Asta as she stepped out into her private sanctuary. The crisp early autumn air whirled about her, and the leaves on the oak trees that provided a natural and impenetrable border around her property, began to shake and then sway in the steadily increasing wind. The energy in the air grew, surrounding Asta. Fiona, watching her from just outside the door, felt the ground beneath her rise and then gently fall.

An intense white light seemed to come from within Asta and then encompass her. Her silver tresses fanned out away from her body in the night air. She held her hands out to her sides and her feet floated inches from the ground. A translucent orb appeared over her, slowly it filled with a with a white glowing mist. When it was full, the orb throbbed and bulged, seemingly unable to contain the mist. Then Asta waved her hand and it shattered into a million pieces, sending the mist everywhere. Asta eyes were closed as she directed the mist to seek out and find those who would be affected by her compulsion. She hovered in the air for minutes and then collapsed to the ground.

Suddenly, Fiona experienced a need to be closer to Asta. Eating, sleeping, even breathing, didn't matter. Nothing was as important as reaching her. She ran the distance that separated them.

Asta was utterly spent. To reach them, she had drawn on every bit of her ancient power infusing it with all her love and fear for Nolan. This was unlike anything she had done before. She compelled, she coerced, she demanded.

Now she hoped and prayed.

Some if not all of them had felt it, but there was no way of knowing how they would respond to her compulsion.

"Asta," Fiona was speaking to her, "are you all right?"

"I am fine. I am not the one being held prisoner by madmen," Asta stood on her own. "Nolan has closed his mind to me because of Bertrand's desire to capture me. Tonight Bertrand will have an opportunity to do just that."

The two women walked to the house, "Go upstairs to bed. Do not leave your room until I return. I will make sure you are safe while I am gone."

"What are you going to do?" Asta was planning something and Fiona knew there was nothing she could do to stop her.

"I'm just going to give Bertrand a good enough reason to leave Nolan alone for the hours 'til dawn," she left Fiona at the door. When the exhausted woman collapsed on the guest room bed, Asta set protections over the property ensuring her friend would not be disturbed until she returned.


	13. Chapter 13

Destiny was leaving the church near her home; she'd spent almost an hour longer talking with the priest than she'd planned on and was more than ready to go home to Nicolae. As she flew toward their newly built house, though, she changed direction without thought. She was miles from her original destination before she realized what she was doing. Immediately, she turned back, but after only a few seconds, she was overcome by a desire, no, not a desire, but a need; one she couldn't deny, to travel away from her lifemate.

__

'Nicolae, I am sorry, but I have to go help someone. I don't understand why, but I cannot go home to you now.' she wanted Nicolae to be with her, but knew if he did anything to prevent her leaving, she would fight him with everything in her.

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"Lucian?" Jaxon thoughts were turned inward, she was oblivious to her surroundings. The television remote she'd been holding, hit the ground and she stood up, "I have to go now."

Lucian grabbed her arm as she walked by. "What do you mean, 'you have to go'? Where?" Lucian took her by her shoulders, holding more tightly as she began to struggle in his arms.

"I don't know. I have go help someone," Lucian knew someone other than Jaxon was causing her desire to leave. _'Lucian, Francesca, too, is attempting to leave our sleeping chamber, I cannot calm her,' _the twins had automatically communicated their dilemma with the other, as they had done throughout their lives. _'Jaxon is insisting that she go to help someone. I do not sense a vampire's touch, but this compulsion is not natural,' _as Lucian spoke with his twin, he held Jaxon firmly in his grasp.

Jaxon gathered her power and pushed herself free of her lifemate's hold. Her face full of confusion and regret, she shifted into mist and was gone.

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__

'Savannah, this is not right. You should go back to Gregori, we could be in danger,' even as she counseled her daughter to return to her lifemate, Raven was traveling so fast through the Louisiana night sky Savannah found it difficult to keep up.

__

'It is as impossible for me to turn back, as it is for you, Mother,' the black haired magician was baffled by their sudden and common decision to calmly walk away from their lifemates and leave for an unknown destination.

__

'Raven, you will return to me at once,' the voice in Raven's mind was serene as always, but the thread of steel running through it was instantly recognizable.

__

'NO!', Raven could feel Mikhail taking control of her, she knew he could compel her to go back to him. _'Mikhail, please do not. You do not understand, I know there is a reason I need to do this. I don't know who is controlling us, but you must let me go.'_

Savannah abruptly and dramatically lost altitude, _'Gregori! Do not do this. Come with me, but do not stop me,'_ there were tears in her voice. _'I don't want to battle against you, but if you force me to return, I will have no choice.'_

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The alley was empty except for small colony of feral cats. Five or six kittens played at hunting a mouse while a few of the adult cats kept a lazy eye on them. The rest slept in and around the dubious shelter of a restaurant dumpster. Asta, her kitten fur a blazing white, swiped at the mouse's tail. She had managed to stay ahead of Bertrand so far, but as dawn grew closer he was becoming more desperate.

After she'd left Fiona, Asta flew toward the warehouse district. She knew the habits of the corrupt vampire hunters and was sure they'd set their lab up somewhere nearby. She didn't want to get too near the vampire, it was imperative she have time to get away from him, but still had to leave enough of a trail for him to believe he could easily capture her.

From everything she'd learned about the poison they'd used on Nolan, she knew it was unusual for him to still be able to communicate with her, she had to ensure he not react to what she was about to do and expose himself to more danger, _'Nolan, you must remain as though unaware of me. I know you will believe I am endangering myself, but I cannot allow Bertrand to use you for his sick amusement. Believe in me, I am only attempting to lure him away. He will not find me.'_ There was no response, the agony of not feeling his touch was overwhelming. Anger had replaced fear in her. Her mind was very clear. Those who were causing both of them so much pain would not be permitted to continue. 

When she was close enough to be certain Bertrand sensed her approach, she called out. _'Where are you, Nolan? Answer me lifemate, I will come to you,'_ she let the words be heard but left no trace of the path they took to reach him. Asta was an ancient and Bertrand was not connected to her in any way. He heard her call, but had no way of knowing from what direction it came.

As soon as she sent the thought, Asta felt Bertrand's triumph. At that moment he was directing the actions of the three humans. She wrenched control of them away from him and sent all three into a sleep only she could wake them from.

Bertrand immediately began searching for her. His body shifted into that of a vulture and his mind reached out frantically, trying to find a weakness in hers. Asta whirled away and made for an empty park a few miles back. Once there she became one of many millipedes, burrowing into the safety of a fallen branch.

And so the hours until dawn passed. Asta continually changing locations and shapes, keeping one step ahead of him. Always choosing vacant buildings or sites to hide in and quickly leaving. Giving Bertrand no opportunity to use the humans nearby in his quest to trap her. He tried to make her come to him, tried to read her mind to predict where she would go next. His power was immense and wholly evil, and though the images he sent to her were frightening and she had to constantly barricade her mind from him, at no time did she falter from her goal of drawing him away from Nolan.

Asta let the mouse escape, her concentration entirely focused on Bertrand. She felt a frisson of fear when she realized he was moving father away from her. Had he given up on trying to capture her and decided to return to the laboratory and the experiments they were conducting on Nolan? Looking at the patch of sky over the alley she saw the black of night was beginning to give way to gray dawn. The sun had begun its ascent into the morning sky. Bertrand could not tolerate the merest touch of daylight. She sighed with relief, for a few hours Nolan would be safe.

A shadow moved at the mouth of the alley. Asta barely noted the cats scattering in all directions as a large black tom stalked toward her. His black eyes, lit by an inner red flame followed her every movement. Asta was frozen by its gaze. He paused for a moment, flicked his tail once and in a burst of speed covered the distance between them. His teeth tore into the scruff of her neck as he picked her up and threw her headfirst into the brick wall that lined the alley.

Asta lay there in the rotting food the cats had dragged from the dumpster. Her head hurt, her neck was bleeding, and the eyes that looked down on her held the promise of death.

"You came!" The relief and joy inside her rang in her voice as she shifted into her true form.

The hunter who'd tossed her so brutally into the wall stepped back away from her, though his eyes never left her. Another came forward to confront her, "You are Asta Gregorski, are you not?"

Asta knew she should be terrified, two very large, very irritated Carpathian males were looking at her like she was bug. One they would happily smash beneath their shoes. And she knew if she could see around them, there would be others just waiting their turn to ensure she regretted tampering with their lifemates.

But fear was the furthest thing from her mind. These were her people. Strong, capable, honorable, true Carpathians all of them. She could not doubt Nolan's safe return when surrounded by men such as these.

Her smile was radiant, "Prince Mikhail, please accept my apologies. I had no other option than to compel the females to come to me." Asta fought the totally inappropriate urge to pat Mikhail's arm to calm him. He looked so stern, and she remembered him as such a carefree fledgling, "It was the only way I could think of to get a hunter here without Bertrand Rousseau knowing what I planned."

The males ranged around her were amazed that this delicate piece of fluff was the one to blame for the hours of rage and terror they had all just lived through. The sheer power of the compulsion she set on the females had convinced them that whoever their opponent was, their capabilities were unlike any they had fought before.

But she was no dread creature of the night, not even a rogue wizard. Their _enemy_ was, instead, a female of their species, lifemate to a fellow hunter. Moreover she was in need of their help. Collectively, they let go of their rage.

"I am Byron," one of the males spoke to her, "I share a blood bond with Nolan." The females, sensing that any danger that might have existed was now gone, began shimmering into view in the cramped space.

Before Asta could respond to Byron, Gregori spoke, "We are all very tired and must rest soon. Nolan is safe until sunset, I assume?" At Asta's nod, he continued, "You must tell us what prompted you to take such drastic action. But first, would you please remove the compulsion you set on our lifemates?" He gestured behind him to the alley that was almost overflowing with menacing, dark-haired males. "I believe you now have all the help you could possibly need."

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	14. Chapter 14

Steel cuffs bound Nolan's wrists and ankles keeping him trapped to the table they'd strapped him to hours ago. The bright fluorescent light above beat at him unmercifully, his hunger clawed at his insides. It had become impossible to muster the strength to touch Asta's mind. His thoughts were fragmented. She spoke to him but the words kept slipping away. He knew only that someone was coming. They were surrounded by enemies, was she warning him that another would take the place of the vampire that left?

Nolan's face was ravaged by the pain. He knew now he had been unsuccessful in ridding his body of whatever poisons they had given him. The paralysis they'd inflicted on him left him defenseless when they burned his skin and slashed him with their knives. One of them was especially talented at causing unrelenting pain as he employed his blade with great precision all over Nolan's damaged body. He could feel rivulets of his blood racing down his chest and legs to drip onto the floor.

He looked at the light that hurt his eyes so. A pitiful rush of power went through him as he stared at it. A hairline crack appeared in the glass surrounding the element. Unsure whether or not he had caused the break, Nolan ignored the merciless pain from his wounds, forcing the disorientating hunger, to the back of his mind, and focused all his thoughts on the bulb. A short time later. _A minute, an hour? _He couldn't tell. There was a pop and the room went dark. Small glass fragments showered down on him, some falling into his open cuts. He was severely drained and embarrassed by the elation he felt at so small a feat.

The blood rushing through the veins of the two men and woman who slept so near to him called to him. The withered cells of his body demanded replenishment. The need to feed, to survive, over road all else. His fangs lengthened as his body fought to free itself of restraints that should have been as easy to escape as snapping a thread. It was useless, _he_ was useless. Though his body raged with hunger he could not move.

The vampire had not returned and the humans no threat to him as they slept an unnatural sleep. Nolan tried one last time to contact Asta, then shut down his lungs and heart and hoped he would wake with the strength to free himself.

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It was mid-afternoon before Fiona woke. The sky was overcast but the fire in the sitting room was warm and cozy. Fiona wrapped herself in an afghan and found a book to read while she waited for Asta to wake and join her.

Fiona was always lost in the pages of a story. She'd learned over the years that it was safer to live her life through characters in a book than to deal with situations that could cause her to lose control and invite a spirit or ghost or whatever, to possess her and leave her in an embarrassing position. And this was definitely a situation where she was out of her element.

She remembered the time she was being proposed to on a second date. He had been a nice enough man, but she had no intention of accepting. While she'd been desperately trying to find the right words to turn him down, her Aunt Alice had apparently taken over and given the poor man a detailed list of why she would never be Mrs. Fiona Flozniak. His name being at the top of said list. When Fiona became aware of surroundings again she was sitting alone at the table of the exclusive restaurant he'd brought her to, the waitress and other diners eyeing her with shock. Fiona had never heard from him again.

It was almost three o'clock when Fiona looked up from her book to discover she was no longer alone. She watched in fascination as women, one after the other, appeared out of nowhere. They all were beautiful, though very different in looks. From fashion model perfection to girl-next-door wholesomeness. But all shared with Asta that indefinable something that would make anyone of them the center of attention in any size crowd. As a group, their allure nothing short of overpowering. Fiona, who'd always considered her own brand of beauty to be quite sufficient, knew she was totally out of her league.

"Thank you for coming," Asta greeted them as she glided into the room. Her step halted halfway in. "They went without me," she said looking around the room. "You ladies are more than welcome to stay and make yourselves at home," Asta was already turning her back to them. "I will return as soon as everything is resolved."

"Wait," a chorus of voice called out. Raven was at Asta's side before she could leave. Raven took her by the arm and led her back into the sitting room. "I was remind you that Nolan would be very displeased if you put yourself in the least bit of danger. You are to remain here, with us, and they will bring Nolan to you when they have defeated Bertrand and the humans who work with him."

Shea, Jacques Dubrinsky's lifemate, concurred, "That is exactly what you were told to say, Raven." Shea more than any of the other women there knew what Asta was going through, she had been the one to find and rescue her lifemate from a similar situation. She couldn't imagine having to sit and wait for word knowing the agony he must be enduring, "Although, now that I think about it, I believe the most important part of the message was that we be together. You may have overemphasized the _remain here_ part, Raven"

"Please do not think I am unaware of what you are doing or that I am unappreciative of it. But I feel guilty enough putting your lifemates' lives in danger. This is not your fight," Asta's words were sincere but her eyes were on the sky growing darker outside the front window. "Bertrand will rise soon. I'm sure they are planning on finding and releasing Nolan before that. I just want to be there, to make sure he's all right. You must understand, he hasn't contacted me since they first took him," a note of panic was creeping into her voice, "I must leave now."

They watched as she dissolved into mist and disappeared from their sight.

The women looked at each other and reached a common decision. They were gone without another word having been spoken.

Fiona set her book down and pulled the afghan up under her chin. She heard the sound of a dog making its way across the hardwood floor. "I didn't know Asta had a dog. Come up here, boy," she patted the spot next to her and invited the Labrador to join her, "I guess they forgot about both of us."

The red-haired canine studied her for a moment before his eyes smiled at her and he joined her in front of the fire. He was stretched out next to her enjoying her attentions, silently encouraging her to pet and stroke him freely. Sighing to himself, he decided that it wasn't always so bad to get left behind while the rest of the males left to battle a master vampire. Being a fledgling of a mere one hundred twenty-five years sometimes had its advantages.

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Nolan woke with a start. His lungs filled with air and his heart began to throb with life. His unhealed cuts seeped with blood at each beat of his heart. His hunger, raking his insides would not allow him the oblivion of rest any longer.

Nothing had changed, he was still alone except for the humans sleeping at his feet. His hair was matted to his head and dried blood and sweat covered his body. He knew it would be dark soon and he battled back the fear that Bertrand would return soon.

He could do nothing to help himself while the paralysis held him prisoner as much as the bindings at his wrists and ankles. He had to free himself. Staying here meant he was condemning both himself and Asta to certain death. Concentrating fiercely, fresh beads of sweat and blood dripping down his face and body; blurring his vision, making his open cuts burn, Nolan tried to move a finger. Only one. Nothing.

Nolan knew himself to be a being of immense of power. He controlled and manipulated the elements without thought. He was both feared and respected by the most powerful of Carpathians. To be reduced to this filled him with rage. So much rage he couldn't hear, see or think because of it. He wanted to pound his fists in frustration. He wanted to rip into the throats of his captors, hear their screams of agony. He wanted to watch them die.

They'd only injected him the one time, although syringes full of the stuff lay on a table with easy reach. While the most brutal of the humans had occupied himself by inflicting cuts on him, Jasper had taunted him with how they would keep him helpless with repeated doses. That they would soon be bringing Asta to join him in his torment and assured him he would have an excellent view of the tortures they had planned for her.

Bertrand had been there the entire time, encouraging their depravities feeding off the emotions of both the torturers and the victim. Though Nolan never saw him he could feel both his and Mark DeWitt's excitement at the thought of having Asta at their mercy. DeWitt's physical response to his fantasies of subjugating her; making her beg and scream in pain caused Nolan's heartbeat to speed up, his fresh cuts bled out even more. He lost consciousness with their laughter ringing in his ears.

Asta had told him something important, but even at the time he hadn't really understood what she was saying. He had the impression of her being chased, of a group of males surrounding her _Carpathian, vampire?, _she had been hurt and was scared. Was she even now in a worse situation than his? He couldn't touch her mind. He'd tried but there was no connection, no answer.

He knew the poison would work its way out of his system eventually, but not soon enough. For now, he was forced to lie in the dark, agonizing hunger and pain making it impossible for him to reason, his incisors dripping with want. He could do nothing but wait for it to all begin again when Bertrand woke. He felt a howl of despair rise in him but his mouth didn't move, he didn't make a sound.


	15. Chapter 15

_'Mikhail, this borders on insanity. There is no need for all of us to take on one vampire. Two or three is more than adequate,' _Gregori was one of a small flock of robins coming to rest on the edge of a graffitied multi-story building that dominated the city block. Its cracked and broken sidewalk in front along with randomly shattered windows throughout, gave a derelict and forsaken feel to the entire neighborhood.

_'You have my permission to leave, in fact you probably should. My granddaughters will be missing their doting father very much by now,' _Mikhail graciously gave his son-in-law an out he knew would be refused.

The small bird's body shook once in irritation, _'I am a healer, Nolan will have need of me. And I cannot leave while you, very foolishly, insist on staying. It is unacceptable that you be without protection.'_

_'If there is one thing I am not without at this moment, it is protection,' _it was a pointless argument, but one Mikhail knew Gregori felt obligated to make.None of the hunters would be willing to abandon the chase at this point. Not only were they genuinely concerned for the life of one of their own, but the lure of hunt was on them. This is who and what they were now. Everyone of them was looking forward to the chance to bring Bertrand to justice. A vampire, a betrayer of their race, a threat to their future.

_'It is too late to send anyone way now.' _Mikhail felt it, he knew Gregori did, too,_ 'The stench of the vampire permeates the air here. Let us do this thing,'_

_'Falcon, you and Tienn will guard the females, they are a block away, ensure they get no closer." _Mikhail used a path common to them all. The sun would set soon, they needed to hurry if they were going to free Nolan before Bertrand rose, _'Jacques, Gregori, Nicolae and I will release Nolan. The rest of you, find Bertrand and attempt to put an end to him without drawing great amounts of attention.'_

If Mikhail had his way Jacques would not be here at all, the things he had endured at the hands of this society still scarred him deeply. Seeing Nolan bloodied and imprisoned would do him no good. But neither did he want Jacques going up against Bertrand.

Although, Jacques was as good as hunter as any, this was too close to what he had endured in his past and Jacques would not fight with the dispassion necessary for victory. Mikhail would not take the chance of losing Jacques to his demons now, not after he had come so far.

_'You insist on protecting him when there is no need,' _Gregori said as they flew through a broken window and entered the building. _'He is…'_

_'My brother,' _Mikhail ended the discussion.

The rest launched themselves from the roof top, some becoming owls, others nothing more than wisps of air. In front of the dilapidated warehouse a large black rat rooting around in the trash, watched them with soulless, yellow eyes. They circled once and then flew off into the late afternoon sky. He left the garbage and stealthily made his way inside.

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Bertrand felt the presence of the hunters as he lay in the soil he'd placed in a large packing crate inside the warehouse. He knew he was facing death, but he would not retreat before retrieving the serum Jasper brought with him. One of their scientists, a human, one he had killed in a fit of temper when he'd heard about the arrests in Houston, had discovered a formula he was certain would reverse the horrible physical deterioration becoming a vampire wrought on them. There was no way to duplicate the drug. Bertrand would not leave without it.

Asta was still controlling the humans in the lab, so Bertrand carefully reached into the mind of the unconscious woman. Patiently, without waking her and so alerting Asta to any change, he commanded her to bring the serum to him.

Zombie-like, Anne got up off the floor and began searching, but as she crossed the floor to get to the bag Jasper carried it in, she slipped in a puddle of Nolan's blood and fell. She hit the ground with a shriek, fully awake.

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_'One of them is awake, I can't control her anymore! What is happening over there?' _Asta didn't wait for an answer. She left the safety of the rooftop; she had to find Nolan. Flying across the street she entered through an open door.

Falcon followed after her, leaving Tienn to guard the rest of the women, _'Asta is on her way to you, Mikhail.'_

Half a block away, a pair a teen-aged girls walked down the forbidding street holding hands. One pointed at the robin and said something to her companion. They ran after it oblivious to any danger.

Once inside Asta continued to follow the path she had to the humans, knowing they would be near Nolan. Suddenly, she hit an invisible wall and plummeted to the rotting floorboards.

She heard an evil laugh and blanched as Bertrand blasted the lid off his resting place and eerily sat up in his make-shift coffin. His head was bullet shaped and sparsely covered with lank, filthy black hair. His skin, a disgusting grayish-yellow sagged from his face. Long discolored fingernails, blackened fangs and rotting gums, left him without a scrap of humanity in his visage. A noisome vapor rose to envelope the air with him and when he spoke it was an offense against nature, "Asta, my love, how nice that you came to me."

Falcon called out to the hunters, _'Bertrand is here, in the warehouse. He has Asta trapped.' _He landed, shifting into his true form and faced the nosferatu.

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Gregori cautiously approached Nolan. He'd seen a Carpathian abused this way in the past but that was before the return of his emotions. A low growl rumbled deep in his throat as he viewed the results of their wanton depravity.

Since they entered the room, Nolan's eyes hadn't left them. He watched intently while the other three ruthlessly dispatched the humans, but his gaze spoke more of terror and fury than awareness of having been rescued.

"He needs blood," Gregori ripped open his wrist and held it to Nolan's mouth. His incisors tore into the healer's flesh and he drank greedily. While the ancient blood with its healing properties replenished Nolan's battered body, Gregori spoke to him in soothing tones, "You know us Nolan, your prince and your friends are here to deal with Bertrand. We will take you to Asta as soon as you are freed, for now you must rest and let me see what damage has been done."

The voice was impossible to ignore. Though, the blood gave him back some of his much needed strength, he found himself doing as the healer told him. He released his hold on the wrist and was about to let himself sleep, when Asta's terror wrenched him from the haze that had been taking over his mind. Still horribly weakened, blood welling up and leaking from his deeper cuts, Nolan yanked himself free of the cuffs and attempted to stand.

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"Mikhail, bring the bag with the medical supplies to me," Bertrand demanded of the man in the other room. He stood behind Asta, keeping her between him and the ancient hunter, "This female will be forfeit, if you do not. I know you believe you can defeat me, but I have gained many powers over the centuries," Asta felt his spittle land on her as he spewed his boasts, "It will be to the benefit of all of us, if you just give me what I want and let me leave in peace."

"You always did like the sound of your own voice, Bertrand," Nicolae interrupted the creature's boasting. He and Jacques stood on either side of Nolan ready to offer support. Gregori, as always, positioned himself between his prince and any possible threat.

Bertrand held Asta like a shield, his long pointed fingernail traced along the vulnerable vein on the side of her neck. As they came into view, Asta saw only Nolan. His handsome face lined with pain was so pale, his loose white shirt stained red with his blood. She pushed against Bertrand's hold. _'Nolan, you're hurt,' _she also wept as she felt his all consuming pain.

_'Do not…'_ he breathed, _'move.' _Nolan shook off the hands restraining him and stepped forward. Still unable to speak, he drew the vampire's attention to himself. His eyes challenged Bertrand's hold on his lifemate.

"Just give me the bag and I'll be gone," Bertrand lengthened the sharp, grimy nail and dug it deeply into Asta's flesh, a thin trail of blood disappeared down the neck of her blouse. "You flirt with her death, do you make any other choice."

Nolan put out his hand to Mikhail, who tossed him the bag. Without taking his eyes from Bertrand, Nolan dumped the contents on the floor. Vials and syringes bounced at his feet. Nolan's dare was unmistakable, _'Come and take it,' _it said.

As the clear bottles skittered across the floor toward Bertrand, Nolan began smashing them one at a time. "No!," Bertrand was thinking furiously. He was surrounded by hunters, his only hope of escape was to distract them with the woman. He smiled gruesomely then tore his fangs into her neck. He drank her blood but let much of it pour from the wound. The life giving fluid rushed from the gash, drenching her hair and clothes.

A scream of terror, immediately silenced, came from behind a large rusted metal contraption.

Nolan flew at Bertrand breaking his hold on Asta. Before she hit the floor, Nolan's arm had broken through Bertrand rib cage, smashing the bones. His hand was buried in the chest of vampire trying desperately to hold fast to the heart while Bertrand's blood burned through his skin to the bone, weakening even more his already depleted body.

Yelling obscenely, Bertrand brutally kicked Asta aside and freed himself from Nolan's grasp. Rats and mice converged from everywhere, running up the legs of the hunters biting them viciously. Thunder filled the sky and bolts of lightning came through the broken windows to strike the floor around them. Large machinery toppled over, the very foundation of the building shifted under their feet as the walls started to collapse, making it impossible for the hunters who had returned, to enter the structure.

Amidst the chaos the two girls came out of hiding, unnoticed by all but the one who now commanded their actions they crawled toward the vampire. Seemingly unaware of the jeopardy they were in, they gathered together the scattered drugs that were so important to Bertrand.

A sharpened piece of wood tore from the ceiling and ripped through Nolan's stomach pinning him to the floor next to Asta. Mikhail stopped the shaking of the building and Gregori made his way to the side of the injured Carpathians, but a cyclone still whirled inside sending debris flying in all directions and lightning strikes came through patches of the fallen ceiling to hit sporadically around them.

Bertrand picked up his two unwilling accomplices; laughing, sure of victory, he taunted them, "I have always be greater than you and your vaunted hunters, Mikhail."

As he made to leave, the amber-eyed rat who had been watching the drama unfold around him, changed form in front of the vampire. The massive man, his long, black hair whipping around his chiseled features, thrust his hand deeply into the hole Nolan left in the vampire's chest, "Maybe so, Bertrand, but never greater than me."


	16. Chapter 16

Nolan and Asta were lying in the rejuvenating soil the vampire had stored, while Gregori and Shea repaired the damage Bertrand had inflicted on them. Around them the Carpathians spoke the words of the healing chant and the scent of their therapeutic candles filled the air.

"Dima, what brings you here at such an opportune time?" Rafael de la Cruz asked softly, he and his brother Riordan had the huge male cornered off to the side of the room, keeping him away from the females who were supporting the healers efforts. Bertrand was dead, his body and heart now nothing more than ashes that had scattered in wind. But having a Malinov brother appear in such a timely and suspicious fashion kept the tension level high in the room. And Rafael more than most, had no trust of any of that lineage, "Your brother, Kirja, implied all you Malinov's had chosen to turn your backs on honor and become vampire. If you chose differently, why have you kept your presence hidden from us all for so long?"

"Are you afraid I've turned vampire, too, Rafael" Dima was absently aware they were attempting to intimidate him but he wasn't even looking at them. His gaze instead, searched out the girls he'd saved from the vampire. They were in the room but unfortunately, they'd been hustled away from him immediately after Bertrand had been destroyed. The females worked together to keep the young women out of his sight until he left and they could be dealt with.

Dima would not have interfered at all in the Carpathian squabble, he'd only come to the place because he sensed the presence of many of his kind. But he felt a personal affront when Bertrand threatened the innocent humans and decided to aid them, "My brothers were foolish and let their arrogance rule them, I am not foolish," he let his eyes meet Rafael's. "Unlike them or you nothing and no one rules me," he deliberately glanced at the prince before returning his gaze to Rafael.

Janie and Jeannie listened to the exchange of harsh words even though they were unable to see the men clearly through the wall of women. Jeannie was sure the room was about to explode in battle at any moment. But she didn't know why she was so sure. The men spoke softly with no hint of anger and no one had made any threatening gestures. The tall one, Dima, was to blame, though, he was the scariest thing she'd ever seen and his words were designed to goad the others.

If she had any sense, she'd dislike him, he seemed to be going out of his way to make sure they all would. But she couldn't bring herself scorn a man she instinctively trusted so much and besides all that, though she'd never seen him before, he seemed familiar to her in a good way. He was being as rude as a badger and was obviously as vain a wasp, but even so, she found herself feeling a little sorry for him. After all, he'd saved her and Janie from that horrible, smelly monster and now everyone seemed to be ganging up on him. Unconsciously, she reached for the necklace she always wore, the amber stone warm in her palm.

Dima's words had drawn the attention of all of the males. Most significantly, that of Gregori, who left Nolan to the care of others and advanced on the stranger, "You pledged your loyalty to Prince Vlad at one time, it should be no hardship to renew that pledge to his heir, the living vessel of our race." Gregori's silver eyes glowed bright in the dark space but his voice was full of the magic it always held when he was persuading someone to his view.

"I may be Carpathian by birth, but I owe no one my loyalty," Dima held himself tall at this challenge to his independence. "My honor is my own concern. You are free to give your pledge to whomever you choose, I honestly could not care less. I only ask that you leave this area soon. This is not a place that draws our kind, I chose to live here because of that, I have no wish for contact with Carpathians or vampires. Keep to your mountains and high places, and I will stay out of your way." Dima was fast losing interest in conversation there was no reason for him to stay any longer. He pushed from his mind the desire to assure himself of the girls' safety and gave his attention to the prince's second in command, "And, Gregori, use your compulsions on those feeble-minded enough to be influenced by them. I am not impressed by your parlor tricks."

"Of course, we will leave you to live your life as you please," Mikhail stated. He, and the others had closely followed the conversation between the two. Mikhail knew Dima was close to outright rebellion against him, but as always his first concern was the good of all Carpathians and to him that meant uniting those left, as well as finding lifemates human or otherwise for the many male Carpathians at risk of turning, "But know you have the support of your people whether you ask for it or not. We are stronger together than apart, as I am sure you know, having spent so long with your brothers before they betrayed us all by choosing to turn."

Dima turned the full blast of his amber gaze on Mikhail, though his voice remained as calm as Gregori's "You are so sure they are the betrayers then, Mikhail?" he asked. "Was not your father, our prince, at all to blame? Sending so many of _our people _away from our homeland he condemned us to a barren future that held only death or the loss of our souls. I tell you again, I have no desire for, or need of, the support of a _Dubrinsky_ prince or his disciples."

Jeannie was absorbed in the tableau, she moved away from the side of her twin and saw the hunters instinctively positioning themselves into defensive stances, automatically safeguarding their lifemates from any possible danger. Their teeth were bared and their muscles tensed in anticipation of attack. They were prepared to defend their prince and strike at the enemy in their midst at a moment's notice. Dima's fangs lengthened, his knees slightly bent. He, too, waited for the word or movement that would push someone over the edge to bloodshed.

All Jeannie saw was one man, standing alone against many, "Leave him alone!" she cried, Janie grabbed her arm and pulled her back before Jeannie threw herself between the opposing forces. "He saved me and my sister. Don't hurt him," a soft female voice whispered to her to be quiet now, that she had done all she could to make the males see reason.

With her outburst, the threat of violence passed. Dima bowed mockingly to the hunters, "You are welcome for the assistance, I know you are most grateful I was here to dispatch Bertrand for you. Please thank the young woman for me, her support was most timely." He was again a large black rat, _'Leave my territory at once, you are not welcome here,' _he tried one last time to get a look at his youthful advocate; unsuccessful, he left.

The girls collapsed against the crate Asta and Nolan rested in, holding each other's hands for support, "He's not very nice, is he?" asked Janie, her head resting on her sister's shoulder.

"No," Jeannie's answer came from deep within her, "but he is a very good man." She held the amber pendant tight in her grasp.

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Nolan woke to find Asta wrapped around him. They were in the ground, underneath Asta's New York home. He'd spent over a week recovering from his wounds with the help of the healers. He was thrilled that on this rising, he and Asta would finally be alone. The girls had been returned to their adoptive family accompanied by Gregori and Savannah. All the memories of the humans affected by Asta's extensive compulsion adjusted so there would be no negative repercussions.

Jacques and Shea had stayed with them the longest. It was Shea who studied the serum Bertrand had been so anxious to retrieve, whatever the vampire had intended to use it for, he would have been disappointed, as it was nothing more than sugar water.

Shea was a talented and dedicated healer and she took Nolan's injuries personally, making sure all trace of poison was gone from his system and every cut healed to her satisfaction. And, although, Jacques was obviously less than comfortable with the attention treating his injuries involved, Nolan found himself more relaxed in Jacques' company than any other male's.

Nolan did not like remembering how afraid and vulnerable he'd felt at the hands of the fanatical society members. And, though, talking about his feelings never crossed his mind, the incident was never far from his mind, but with Jacques he found he didn't have to say much of anything. Jacques kept any conversation away from topics that were still raw and Nolan felt a new respect and admiration for a man he'd known for centuries. For the first time in a thousand years Nolan had a friend.

He was deeply grateful for the restoration of his emotions, because of Asta his soul was complete. He was able to feel genuine friendship again. Nolan fitted his hands around Asta's bottom, enjoying the feel of her close to him. His body stirred to life, because of Asta he thought to himself, he was able to feel a myriad of things long denied to him. Holding her securely in his arms, he took her above to their bedroom.

Running his fingers through her hair, remembering again how close they'd both come to dying, he felt an overwhelming need to reaffirm their bond. Although, they'd shared a mind shattering release just before they slept that morning, he found merely remembering it wasn't enough. His hold on her tightened. Nothing was ever enough. Nolan held all the love he felt for her in his mind. He wanted her to be enveloped by his love when she woke. He wanted to be in her mind, her heart, her body. He bent his head and kissed the firm white mound of her breast, '_Asta_, _baby_, _you feel so good.'_ He knew she would wake soon. Both hands continued to caress her while his lips and tongue moved lower. He grew hard at the thought of tasting her as she roused.

He slid down and placed her legs over his shoulders admiring the sight. Tilting her so as to give himself better access he called to her as he kissed his way up her inner thigh, _'Wake up, _meu iubito_, I need you.' _Asta's lungs filled with air, then immediately seized as she felt her lifemate lick at her entrance and delve inside. He concentrated on the feel and taste of her, caressing, nipping, loving her. Unable to sate himself he kept her, too, teetering on the brink. When the pace of her movements and the feeling of her small inner muscles contracting betrayed how close she was, he changed rhythm. His finger replaced his tongue and he explored her outer folds with his mouth. A groan, part anger part profound arousal, escaped her. The hands that had been gently urging him on, tugged and pulled at his hair, impelling him to take her with his body. He reached up and lightly pinched a turgid nipple in retaliation.

__

'Tell me what you want, Asta,' he stroked her deliberately, his tongue firm against her. He smiled wickedly as he saw her body's reaction to his words and touch. He couldn't resist the silent invitation and sipped from her once more, _'Tell me,' _he didn't know if he was commanding or begging her.

__

'You, Nolan, I want you,' her words were an aphrodisiac to him. _'I know how hard and hot you must be. Can't you see how empty I am without you,' _her hips moved in wanton provocation, Nolan's heated gaze watched in fascination. He felt so good, he was in pain, '_I need you to fill me. Shatter my world from inside me, my love.'_

His fingers dug into her hips, leaving bruises as he yanked her into position. The image Asta had of them in her mind almost caused him to lose control before he slammed his thick length into her hot, welcoming sheath. Their shared passion was fierce; a taking and giving that held nothing back. She pierced his skin and began drinking his blood, at the sweet agony of it he lost all sense of self. There was no thought, only the instinctual need to claim his mate as his body furiously took hers; he penetrated the pulse at the side of her neck. They soared past the stars, holding tight, while they annihilated each other with pleasure.

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"I can't believe you didn't want to find me," Asta grumbled as they slowly recovered from their exertions. She'd stumbled across that memory as they had been basking in the afterglow of their passion.

"It was never you I did not want," his arm dragged her back to his side. "Had I known you still lived and what you would bring to my life, I would have never rested until I had you firmly bound to me,' he kissed her sweat soaked forehead. "You shouldn't have hidden yourself from me so long."

Nolan thought of the long centuries he spent without emotion and color, "At least, Tienn's young cousin, Gervaise, will not experience what most of us have. What do you think Fiona's reaction will be when she realizes the _dog _you gave her is in reality her lifemate?"

"I worry more about Gervaise ever realizing it," Asta replied. "Fiona's natural life-span will be long over before he loses his emotions, he is going to have to fall in love the human way," she looked at Nolan with utter seriousness, "You cannot interfere in anyway, no matter how good your intentions."

He took her hand and kissed the palm, "That is a very stupid rule."

She took her hand back and traced his belly button with her finger as she lay with her head on his chest, her hair flowing down her back, "Nolan, do you still believe it is wrong to bring a Carpathian child into our uncertain future?" She'd read the thought clearly in his mind when they'd first met, but hadn't looked again scared of what she would find.

"The future has never been certain for any race. But I find myself looking forward with hope to ours, any child we create will be welcomed and loved," as he spoke the words he felt the truth of them lighten his heart. He truly did want a child with Asta. He kissed her with rekindled passion, "If you like, we begin trying to add to our family right now." His hands stroked down her sides, loving the feel of her soft skin. He breathed in her scent and glided against her, captivated by her luscious shape, but was thinking of his non-existent child, "If we have a girl," he said into her ear, "you will have to something to ensure she doesn't have a lifemate like Dima. I would not give a daughter of mine over to a male such as him."

"Dima!" Asta pulled out of his embrace and scrambled to a sitting position next to her lifemate. With a grunt of surprise, Nolan rolled over onto his back, briefly mourning his thwarted desire. His gloriously naked lifemate was clearly animated about something. He watched as parts of her moved intriguingly while she grabbed a pillow and settled it over her lap and prepared to tell him what was on her mind. Nolan gently tugged the pillow from her and shoved it under his head, appreciating his view of her, he asked, "What about Dima?"

"Jeannie wasn't supposed to meet him until she was older, she's barely eighteen," she pulled the sheet up over her legs. "I'm sure he didn't get a good look at her, if he had he would have taken her with him as soon as he realized what she is to him. But that doesn't mean he was unaware of her. I'm so afraid he'll become curious about her and search her out too soon," Nolan's hand moved to her waist and then slowly glided down her side in a soft caress, taking the sheet with it. He left his hand on her thigh for her to play with, as she seemed to need something to fidget with in her agitation.

__

'Much better,' he thought.

"How is that better?" Asta asked, "I may have ruined both their chances for happiness by bringing them together years before they were supposed to meet. I had no idea the compulsion would cause those two girls to travel so far. And then for them to keep coming even after I ended it, can you imagine how powerful they'll be if they're ever converted to Carpathian?" She looked at him guiltily, "I just couldn't live with myself if my actions result in her being hurt or Dima never having a real chance to bond with her as a lifemate."

"You dimmed Jeannie's memory of Dima so that she barely recalls him at all and he didn't see her. And we know he was never in her mind," Nolan was suddenly impatient with the discussion of the other male and pulled her over him, "You did all you could, the rest is up to them," he caught her protesting hand in his and held it against him, he swelled larger as she automatically ran her hand down his length cupping him gently, reveling in his reaction to her. His groan of pleasure told her the topic of conversation was about change, "At least, you never need to worry that I will say anything to lead Dima to her," he wrapped her hand around him more tightly, the fire in his blood building as he caught the scent of Asta's arousal, "she seemed a nice girl, if she is lucky he'll never find her."

"I couldn't make her forget him, though," Asta was trying to hold her thoughts together but the blue eyes watching her with so much love and want was too distracting. And the warm expanse of muscled perfection beneath was too much of a temptation for her to ignore any longer, "I think a part of Jeannie already knows that Dima Malinov is her lifemate."

A huge bolt of lightning struck a large oak tree just outside the bedroom splitting it down the middle, all the windows in the house rattled at the blast. The clap of thunder that accompanied it would have thrown Asta from the bed had Nolan not grabbed hold of her.

__

'You dare to hide my lifemate from me?' the voice was as quiet as the eye of a storm and carried just as much potential for destruction, _'The arrogance of you _honorable_ Carpathians knows no bounds. Who are you to decide for me when and if I should claim the only hope I have of retaining my soul?'_

"Do not even think of threatening us, Dima," Nolan told the outraged Carpathian. Nolan's voice was not loud but deadly calm in its resolve, "Asta did nothing wrong by merely knowing a thing. Jeannie is too young for you to claim now. And know this, if you do claim her now and she is hurt because of it, there will be consequences. My _honor_ would demand it of me.

****

THE END

SORT OF

MOSTLY…

Thank you, to all who left such kind reviews, you made writing this such a treat for me. I hope now that it's finished you'll let me know if you liked it. This is the first story I've posted and I would love the feedback.

Are you interested in Fiona's or the twins' story?

Elenemire-I tried, but I can't seem to stop with the cliffhangers.


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